Tangled: Varia Style
by juneamber
Summary: The story of a girl, an extraordinary girl, and how she will deal with the Varia; but more importantly, how will the Varia fare with her? And the mass of hair that follows her? Inspiration taken from Disney's Tangled, Xanxus x OC.
1. Prologue I: The Meeting

**Prologue I- The Meeting**

"GET HIM!"

Nine year old Xanxus ran as fast as his little legs could carry him. The men running after him were completely enraged that a pintsized rat had managed to sneak past them.

'What the fuck is wrong with them? This piece of crap isn't something they'll ever eat, so why don't they just let me take it?'

He looked at the stale loaf of bread he clutched in his hands for dear life. The loaf was not only stale, but had also fallen on the floor. It was not something that the shopkeeper would have sold in the first place, but after he had dropped it on the floor, it was sure to go in the trash. Even though it was stale and dirty, it was something to keep both him and his ma alive. That was all they needed- just a little bread to share between them.

He didn't know this part of town very well. It was the richer part of Sicily that normally gave him, a mere sewer rat, dirty looks as he passed. Oh, how he hated those looks. How he wished he could beat them all up and shove their faces into the ground, making them beg for mercy. But he was still too young to do such things. However, the dirty looks were something he could bear with. It was better than the constant bullying and shoving around he got round his neighbourhood. He had had enough, and desperately needed a change of scenery. Everyone thought his mother was crazy. Ok, so she may have a few screws lose, but that didn't make her any less human. Everyone thought he was a good-for-nothing child who couldn't do anything right and wouldn't get anywhere in the world. Sure, he had a temper which led to lots of trouble at school and all... Fine, so he was pretty close to being good-for-nothing, but at least he tried.

He knew he was starting to get lost. And the men following him were gaining on him. They had longer legs and were bigger, so managed to store more energy than what he had in his tiny, skinny form. To top it off, he was starting to get dehydrated. The boys from his neighbourhood had thrown his only water bottle and what little lunch he had into the sewers, trying to rouse him into playing 'sewer rat fetch'. Naturally, this had set him off, and he had foolishly lost his only decent bottle after starting a fight. This also meant he had lost some money, especially if he wanted to try and replace it.

He kept on running, nonetheless. If he didn't, he would lose the only thing he had managed to gain after another long and awful day of his even more awful life. But he was growing tired and the streets were growing more unfamiliar. Just as he turned a corner into a street that looked like a dead end, he was suddenly pulled aside into a well hidden alcove. In panic, he looked around to find out who had pulled him back, when he suddenly realised there was no one there. At the same time, it registered with him that the pull had been immensely weak, but the reason it had managed to move him was simply because he was not expecting it. He began to wonder whether he had just imagined the pull and was about to move again, when a tiny hand clapped over his mouth and his eyes went wide in alarm. Much like the pull, the pressure in the little hand was also very weak. He looked behind again. Again, he found nothing there. He frowned.

"Shh! You have to be very quiet, or they'll find you!"

A whisper came through the recesses of the alcove. It was soft, light and melodious. It had a beautiful, but young ring to it. Much like his mother's singing voice, only younger. It was one he would have happily listened to in his dreams forever. But this wasn't his dreams.

"Hm ah uh?"

His head snapped around to try and answer his own question.

"I said 'Shh'! Don't you know what 'shh' means?"

A little hushed voice answered back.

"Hm mm! Hm mhmm hmm!"

"What?"

The pair suddenly fell quiet as one of the men turned the corner and ran straight past their little alcove. Eventually, all of the men turned and ran around the corner, continuing their search. The pair waited for the street to completely quiet down before either of them relaxed. Xanxus could feel the warmth of the girl's hand over his mouth and of her other one, gently resting against his side. With that kind of voice, it could only be some useless little girl. As soon as the girl let go of him, he turned on his heel and repeated his last line.

"I said 'Shut up! I don't care!'"

"Don't care about what?"

It took him a moment to realise that the girl was below him. She was little; she came up to...maybe just above his chin? He couldn't really see much of her as he squinted in the darkness, but had a guess that she was making some stupid, clueless looking face.

"Step out into the light!" He ordered. 'If you're trouble, I'll take you out here and now.'

"Sure." Came the happy response. Happy? Was there something wrong with her? She must have a few screws lose to sound happy at an order being barked at her. But he could easily get used to having people following his every command like that.

The girl stepped out, and Xanxus felt like he was looking at a doll. Of course, not that he really knew what a doll looked like... I mean, it's not like he had ever owned one... Ahem... Awkward.

A doll was really the only thing that could describe the little girl well. She looked two or so years younger than him, but something told him she was actually only one year younger. She had a paler complexion than his own, a light frame and dark, rich red hair that hung in a braid. It hung down her back, so he had no idea how long her hair was. Her face was almost perfectly heart-shaped, only more round about the bottom. The only thing that could have been considered an imperfection was the few, light freckles that were scattered across her cheeks. Those would most likely fade as she got older. Big, doe-like green eyes gazed at him with curiosity, as he tried to think of something to say.

The first thing he did was blush. 'Blush? Why the hell am I blushing? So the hell what if she's pretty?'

"Hello."

"Uh... Hi." 'Wow. Genius, Xanxus, just genius.'

All the same, the little doll smiled up at him happily.

"My name's Poinsettia. What's yours?"

"Pan-what?"

"Pan-what is a bit of an odd name."

"Huh? No! Name's Xanxus. I meant your name."

"Oh! I see. Poinsettia."

"Paincetti?"

"Poinsettia."

"Powaincetti?"

"Poinsettia."

"Oh forget it! Don't you have a nickname or something?" 'Why am I even talking to her?'

She shook her head, almost regretfully.

"Nope! Mother never gave me one."

"Right... I'll just call you woman."

"But I'm not a woman yet."

"Like I care!" 'Stop talking to her!'

With that, Xanxus turned on his heel, in an attempt to get away from the little doll.

"Wait! Is all that for you?"

He looked at the loaf that he had almost forgotten.

"No."

"Oh. Who else is it for?"

"Why aren't you asking why I stole it? And why did you bother helping me? I'm not gonna owe you back! Or thank you! Or share it with you!"

"Hm?" A stupid pretty dimpled smile spread across her face. "You don't have to share it with me! I saw those men drop it on the floor. There was no reason for them to chase you for a loaf they would have just thrown in the bin anyway. I think that was mean of them. But why don't you just buy some nice, clean, new bread?"

The question was completely innocent, empty of contempt, but nonetheless, it made him prickle.

This mindless little girl obviously had three decent meals every day, while him? He had something to eat twice a day, if he was lucky.

"Don't have money."

This made the little doll frown.

"Um... can't you-"

"No. There's nothing I can do but steal." His rage at the world for giving him an unfair life started to seep out into his voice.

"Oh..." He could hear the sadness in her voice and turned to look at her face. She looked sad, and it made him upset and angry at the same time.

"Hey." She looked up in mild surprise.

"Yes, Xanxus?" 'Why is this girl so polite? Doesn't she know street rats don't care for manners?'

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Her face brightened and she looked like a miniature sun. It relieved Xanxus greatly. He had no idea how to deal with a blubbering girl.

"I'm on a trip with mother!"

"Huh?"

"I'm on a trip with mother. She had some business to take care of, and I'm still too young to be left by myself in my tower, so she brought me with her. We've travelled across the entire world to get here!"

'Tower?'

"The entire world?"

"Yup! My tower is actually in Japan, where mother says it's safe for me. But mother's business partners are here."

"Right..." 'This sounds weird...' "How long are you staying?"

"Mm... Mother says it depends. But it could be as long as a year."

"Wait, if you live in Japan, why don't speak Japanese?"

"I do. Mother taught me both Italian and Japanese. And English, and Spanish..." ...and Xanxus let her ramble on by herself for a while. Her voice was nice to listen to. Soothing, even. And she had a kind tone when she spoke to him. It was a pleasant change to the voices full of scorn he was so used to.

"...and she's even teaching me about plants! She's really amazing; she can tell the difference between poisonous ones and-"

'Why the hell would anyone need to know if a plant was poisonous if they had enough money to go buy food for themselves rather than hunt for it?'

"Ok, ok, I get it. Your ma's amazing. And I'm sure she wouldn't want you to follow a sewer rat like me. Now go home."

Xanxus was tired, and he had to get the food to his ma. There was no point in getting to know this girl if she was going to leave and didn't even know when. She had stopped talking, so he turned his back on her and walked away, before she could say another word to him. After a little while, he realised there were footsteps behind him. Small, fast ones.

Without stopping, he looked over his shoulder with a look of irritation.

"Oi! Go home!"

"Erm... this is the way home?"

"Why are you _asking_? And don't lie. You're a terrible liar. And besides, if you're ma's rich or whatever, your 'home' would be the _other _way."

This stopped her short for a moment.

"Oh." He turned forward and continued on his way. After another little while, he heard the footsteps once more. He sighed irritably before he turned sharply.

"GO HOME!"

This kind of bellow shocked even some of the older boys in his school when he used it on them. But this girl? She just smiled as if he had given her some flowers.

"Why won't you go?" His question came out more like a demand.

"Because I made a new friend!"

"Eh? Who?"

"You!" She grinned like an idiot. Xanxus felt irked and warm simultaneously. What was it with this girl being able to make him feel contradictory emotions at the same time? It didn't make any sense!

Her idiotic attitude didn't make any sense!

He stared at her for some long seconds, before he realised there was no way of winning an argument against an idiot. He sighed heavily and continued on his way home with his third wheel.

They passed the abandoned hazelnut farm and then the lake, before they finally reached his shabby little house on the outskirts of town. Really, it was embarrassing having a pretty girl come to such an ugly place with a scruffy looking boy, and he was glad whoever was up there was kind enough to not let them meet anyone he knew on the way home.

"Well. Welcome to my castle." He said glumly. She turned to him with an excited smile and curtseyed. He was shocked.

"Why thank you, my dear prince!"

He burst out laughing.

"You've been told way too many fairy tales!" He was actually wiping tears from his eyes. When was the last time he had laughed?

"Told? No one's ever told me a fairy tale. Why? Do people tell you fairy tales?"

"What? No! I'm a _boy_. Boys don't get told fairy tales! But yeah, that's normally how people get to know them. Wait, if you weren't ever told any, then how do you know about them?"

"I read them in mother's library. She brings me a new book every time she comes over, so I don't get bored in my tower."

'The tower again.'

"You can read?" He looked at her incredulously. This idiot had a brain that could be used?

"Yes, I can! Why? Can't you?"

"No. I mean, yeah. Kinda." She giggled. He prickled, even though the sound was twinkly.

"What?!"

"You can't 'kinda' read. Let me teach you!"

"Teach him what, my dear?"

His ma had come out of the house to see what the commotion was about. After all, she had just heard her son laugh. That in itself was a rarity. And if he ever did laugh, he always tried to hide it. It seemed strange a little girl had made him do so, and even more strange that she herself had laughed as well.

"I'm going to teach Xanxus how to read!"

Great, now his ma was up. He loved her dearly, yes, but that stupidly kind attitude of hers was too sweet to survive in this world. Plus, her body was weak. This was one of the main problems- she was too weak to hold up their family by herself, so that left him with the job.

"I don't need it!" He didn't want to be taught by a little girl! He had some pride!

"Now, now Xanxus. It could very be useful to you. Especially so when you eventually become the boss."

"Boss?"

Before the girl could ask any questions about something so dangerous, he quickly changed the topic.

"Ok, fine. You can teach me. But what do you want in return?" There was little to nothing he could offer her, but he refused to be in her debt.

"Can I ask for anything?" Her eyes almost looked like they had sparkles in them. It made him shifty.

"Well... It depends on whether I can get it for you or not." Was she going to ask him for something expensive? She knew he didn't have any money.

"Really? In that case..."

Or was she going to make him her slave for the rest of their lives? He would have to find out about those poisonous plants from her and drop some into her food if she did.

"...will you tell me a fairy tale?"

"What?" He had lost all control over the muscles in his face and had no idea what his face looked like. All he knew was that his mother was laughing. Which was good, but it was at his expense. Which wasn't so good for his pride.

"Will you tell me a fairy tale?"

He didn't know how to reply. His mother smiled kindly down at him before she turned her smile to the little girl.

"Why don't you come in and have some supper with us my dear? I don't know your name either."

She gladly accepted and his ma, somehow, managed to pull off a pretty decent meal for the three of them. When she asked the girl if her parents would be worried, she simply replied that her mother would usually leave her alone in the house for days at a time, during which she would cook and clean for herself. It was kind of impressive. It was obvious she was lonely though.

'No wonder she would make friends with a sewer rat.'

The evening turned into night and she eventually had to leave. Xanxus' ma told him to walk her to her house to make sure she was safe. He did as he was told. They passed the lake and headed over to the farm, from where she said there was a path right up to her mother's villa. He shrugged and turned away, before he heard her call.

"Xanxus!"

"Yeah?" He turned to see the little doll almost glowing in the sunset. She looked delicate. Maybe he should walk her all the way home.

"You're not a sewer rat."

"What?" Where the hell did that come from? She ran up to him before she continued to speak.

"You're not a sewer rat." She repeated. "You said that earlier today, and it's actually been bothering me ever since. You're not a sewer rat. You're a boy who's going to grow up to be really strong and great." The comment tickled his ego and his lips quirked up into a smirk.

"Hmph. You really think that?"

"No." Figured as much. "I know that. There's a difference."

He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, you can talk to me about the titchy differences in language during your lessons-"

Before he could finish his sentence properly, he felt a pair of lips gently brush against his cheek, then plant themselves firmly in a little peck of a kiss. Even though it was just a little one, it made all the blood flow into his cheeks and his eyes widened in shock. Never, _never_ had a girl, aside from his mother, kissed him in his entire life.

"Er, um, you, I mean, I-" She smiled that pretty dimpled smile, only leaving him more to blush about.

"Good night Xanxus. I'll see you tomorrow, ok?"

With that, she waved and ran off down the path. All he could do was dumbly wave back.

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**A/N: **Wow... It's so long! In any case, if anybody spots any mistakes, grammatical/spelling/typos/whatever else, please,_ please,_ PLEASE tell me! I've read this chapter about twenty times already and I can't see the mistakes anymore :( But I hope you've enjoyed! :)

Please review and tell me what you think- this story has yet to be finished, and I'm in some need of motivation to finish it. I've got three parts to the prologue that I'll upload before I finish the story, but the main story won't be uploaded until the whole thing is finished and I'm happy with it.

By the way, I deeply apologise for swearing- I usually don't swear (though I don't care if other people do) and find it unprofessional to swear when writing, but with the Varia, it's impossible to not swear :P. I hope it doesn't offend anyone, though you wouldn't read about Xanxus if you did mind the swearing, so anyway...XD


	2. Prologue II: The Lake

**A/N:** Yay! Next chapter! I hope you guys like this one as much (hopefully more) as you did the last one. Enjoy! And tell me what you think :)

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**Prologue II- The Lake**

After their first meeting, Xanxus started his reading lessons with Poinsettia. Aside from being a good teacher, she was also a very patient one. Either that, or Xanxus was some kind of genius. In return, he told her all the fairy tales he knew. Which weren't many. But she didn't seem to mind. She always brought some food with her for their breaks, so they could eat and tell each other stories at the same time. Xanxus wanted to take this gesture of hers as pity, but somehow, couldn't bring himself to. The food she brought with her seemed to be what she cooked herself at home. He believed this because some of the food she cooked was too strange to ever belong in a store; or a recipe book, for that matter. But it always tasted good; he never had an empty stomach. He stopped going to school on a daily basis and went just on Wednesdays. Schooldays on Wednesdays were shorter than the rest and seemed more bearable to him for that reason. And besides, she was a better teacher than any in his school; he had only intended to learn how to read Italian from her, but she had also taught him some English and Japanese, as well as some Maths. The sciences were, by far, her forte. Not only was she good at them, but she loved them so much that she wouldn't shut up about them once she started. This irritated him sometimes, because he _really_ hated the sciences. They were useless. It was all good for him though. Even though he only went to school on Wednesdays, his teachers could already see his improvement, and they had no complaints.

In return for so much extra teaching, he- grudgingly- asked if there was anything that she would like to be taught by him in return. She had honestly answered him that she would have loved it if she could learn how to play a musical instrument. Xanxus had remembered that his ma had once said the voice, if used correctly, could be the most beautiful instrument of all. And his ma would know- she used to be a very talented street singer and had been trained by one the most famous opera singers in Italy. So, he had asked his ma if she would teach her. Hence, a new schedule started for them. In the mornings, he would come to meet her near the abandoned hazelnut farm, where she would always wait with a picnic basket in her hands. They would walk around the area for a while, before finding the hidden oak tree that was situated near the lake. There, they would have a full breakfast before they started their lessons. They would take a break for lunch, during which they would walk over to his home and leave the still half-full basket with his mother. She would have some lunch ready for them and they ate together. They would leave once more to the oak tree, where they would have more lessons. Her lessons were strange- she didn't use notebooks or pens or boards. She would use anything that surrounded her to teach him; the trees, the leaves, the berries, the dirt, even the lake. In the evenings after her lessons, they would come back to his home, where his ma would have made a delicious supper using the ingredients from the picnic basket Poinsettia had brought in the morning. After dinner, his ma would teach her how to use her voice in different ways and teach her different songs. Xanxus enjoyed listening to them sing; it reminded him of when he was younger, when his ma sang him to sleep every night.

His ma and Poinsettia encouraged each other to do the best they could in everything they did. After a few weeks, Poinsettia had, without realising, convinced his ma to find a job. It was a gentle job at one of the kitchens in an inn near their house. His ma wouldn't need to strain her weak body and if anything went wrong, he was generally always nearby. It made Xanxus proud that he knew such strong women- not that he would ever tell them so.

After a while, they stopped telling each other stories during their breaks and started to explore the area around his house together. Their little breaks turned into mini adventures, in which Poinsettia would continue to teach Xanxus about things he didn't know and probably would never need. Like about the plants in his area. Sure, knowing which were edible or not was useful, but why would he need to know which were good for colds and burns? The majority of the time, he just listened to her babble. Even though he wasn't really listening to what she was saying, he heard her voice, which he had grown fonder of than he thought possible as the days went on.

He also learnt things about her through their adventures that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to. For one, she was immensely weak. Didn't carrying that heavy picnic basket everyday do anything for her muscles? Apparently not. This weakness of hers bothered him sometimes, but at other times, it gave him a nice ego boost. Every time he helped her to carry something too heavy for her, she showered him with praise. And it was honest praise. That was another quality he liked about her; she wouldn't lie. Not to his ma, not to him, and not to herself. Despite her weaknesses, she still tried to do everything by herself. Sometimes, it was dangerous for her to do so, and Xanxus helped her as often as she would let him. She was surprisingly stubborn.

It was weird, actually. If he had met this little doll any other way, he never would have spent so much time with her, leave alone begin to consider her a friend. She insisted that's what they were. Somehow, it made him feel unsatisfied. Despite their blossoming 'friendship', Xanxus still felt indebted to her. She was teaching him so much, but he hadn't taught _her_ anything in return. Yes, his ma was teaching her techniques that she would never be able to teach herself, but that was his ma, not _him._ It bothered him to no end. One day, he decided to be like her and just tell her what was bothering him.

"Oi."

"Yes?" Emerald eyes lifted to meet his crimson ones.

"..."

"Xanxus?" She cocked her head to the side. Cutely, though he would never admit it.

He sighed before continuing. "I'm not paying you back for any of this."

"That's ok. I don't mind." She went back to setting up their breakfast.

"No! That's not how I meant it. I mean..." How to get his words right?

"What do you mean then?"

"I mean... I want to teach you as much you're teaching me." He said it so reluctantly, it almost sounded sulky.

She smiled brightly in response. "I've told you before, we're friends, remember? You don't need to ever pay me back!"

He still didn't look satisfied, so she said something that she hoped would satisfy him. It also wasn't too far from what she truly believed.

"And besides, I believe there will be a time that you'll be the only one who can do something for me."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Hmm... Like protect me."

This did more than satisfy him, but he wanted to hide just how much such a comment meant to him. He had gotten to the point where he wanted to protect her from everything he could, and hadn't come to that point just because he thought it would be a good way to pay her back. To hide his satisfaction, he snickered and replied, "You've been reading way too many of those stories with princes in shining armour."

"But you are my prince in shining armour!"

She said with a smile on her face. As usual, her carelessly sweet comment brought a blush to his cheeks, although he accepted them more easily now.

"Do you really want me to be your prince in shining armour?"

She looked at him with her big, trusting eyes, and replied honestly, "Yes."

His eyes softened. "Do you want the happily ever after the princesses in those stories have too?"

"Yes! The one where the princess marries her prince and they live happily ever after!"

"Who said anything about marriage?!" Xanxus had let the question slip out more as a snap than the teasing question he had meant it to be. He had just had the realisation that marriage was exactly what he wanted, obviously when they were much older and he was extremely rich and powerful; it would mean she was his and no one else could touch her. It would mean he had the right to protect her. And keep her close by his side.

But it wasn't possible. He was poor, she obviously came from a rich family. Aside from problems with the families, why would she ever give up her comfortable life to be with him? He was temperamental, she was sweet. And pretty. She would grow up to be a beauty; that he was sure of. And when she did, she could have any man she wanted. But her dimness in certain areas, like her too-trusting nature, was bound to lead her into wrong hands. He couldn't let that happen. Circumstances might dictate that he couldn't have her, but he would find a way.

Little did he know, his face had hardened into a determined look that had concerned Poinsettia.

"Xanxus? Did you hear me? I said it doesn't matter!"

Xanxus turned to her and was taken aback to see her face contorted in worry. Was she so upset by the thought that she wouldn't be his? Or was it just that she couldn't have her happily ever after? It made him anxious to see her face with any negative emotion, either way.

"Relax. When I'm old enough, I'll be swimming in enough money for us to have the greatest wedding and have the longest happily ever after ever."

It made him cringe to sound so mushy, but seeing her face lift into an expression of happiness made it totally worth it. She beamed up at him, and he quirked his lips in a half smile for her benefit. His smiles, even half ones, were rare, but she managed to pull one out of him every now and then.

"That sounds good, but money isn't everything, you know!"

"Yeah. That's what you're here for."

She grinned before sticking something in front of him.

"Can you open it please?"

He rolled his eyes before taking the jar of honey and easily popping it open. She was still polite with him, for some very strange reason. He noticed the berries and cheese and suddenly felt wary of where her cooking skills would take them this time.

After their breakfast, which had somehow managed to stay pretty decent, they went down to the lake to wash the sweet juices of the berries and the sticky honey off of their hands. As they walked to the water's edge, he noticed a twig that she completely missed. It was small, so he thought nothing of it. Until she tripped over it and was on her way head first into the water.

Xanxus reached out for instinctively as he heard her squeal, but she was already well on her way in, and by reaching out for her, all he did was follow. There was a large and loud splash as they both went in. Xanxus came up easily; having lived so close to the lake meant that he had been pushed and thrown in many times. Through these experiences, he had been forced to learn how to swim and could swim quite well now. He noticed that it was little bit harder to come up than usual, though. Something was hanging on him, and when his head broke over the water, he saw the girl. She was hanging onto him for dear life and was splashing around in a panic. Was it possible that she didn't...

"You...don't know how to swim, do you?" He asked the question slowly as he realised he already

knew the answer. Poinsettia shook her head wildly all the same.

"Hold on."

Her arms wrapped around his neck and he held her waist to tell her to keep still. It would be easier to swim with her hanging off him if she didn't move too much. He could easily take her weight and swim at the same time. She was as light as she looked.

Once he had pulled the both of them onto the shore of the lake, he looked at her and asked her a question he hoped she would reply with a yes to.

"Do you want me to teach you how to swim?"

She replied with an affirmative nod. He didn't really know how to start teaching her, seeing as his way of learning how to swim was a bit harsh for her, but he had time to think it over. For the moment, he would take her to his house where they could dry off.

"Come on. Let's go to my house."

"Why? It's not yet lunchtime."

"We need to dry off."

"Why? We'll dry off eventually."

"Before or after we catch a cold?"

"Oh."

The girl was academically amazing, but her skills at looking after herself really sucked. One more thing he had learnt about her today- the girl was clumsy.

When they got home, the first thing that happened was that towels were thrown on them. Xanxus went into his room to change as his ma got clothes for Poinsettia to wear. He took his time changing and then waited a couple of extra minutes to make sure she was changed before he stepped out into their tiny living room that acted as their dining room as well as their kitchen. Poinsettia had changed into one of his old shirts that was too small for him, and she looked ridiculous. The shirt was so big that it was almost falling off her shoulders, and was so long that it acted as a dress for her.

Something caught Xanxus' attention and he was surprised he hadn't noticed before. The length of her _hair_.

It was ridiculously long; not only did it flow all the way down to the floor, but it had even made a nest of a coil there. Xanxus wondered how many times her hair could go around the small main room.

"Hi! Are you all dried off?"

Not really. His hair was still wet. Normally, if his mother were to see this, she would put a towel over his head and dry it off. But this time, she gave it a miss and continued to frown at all the dark red hair piled on her main room floor. She sighed heavily and then set to work drying her hair using a towel. As his ma was doing this, Poinsettia beckoned him over. Still staring at her hair, he obediently came to stand in front of her. Before he realised what she was doing, a towel was thrown over his head and she started to towel dry his hair. He peeked out from under the towel with a scowl, seeing a sight which softened his scowl considerably. She was standing on her tiptoes to reach right the way round his head. His face flushed gently and he let his gaze drop back to the floor full of hair.

He watched as his ma managed to dry all of her hair and then braid it into the usual style she wore. After that, the both of them got a stern warning not to go swimming so casually. It was fine during the summer, but if it had been winter, they both could have gotten colds that may have been the death of them. Xanxus, because they didn't have money to buy any medicine and Poinsettia, because her hair was so long. After that, Xanxus made a mental note to never let her too near open water unless he was there by her side.

* * *

**A/N: **Please leave a review! I'm a little nervous about this one *shifty eyes* I fear Xanxus may be OOC, but it's hard to write for him as a child, because we only really have one picture of him as a child to go by :S  
Anyway, hope you enjoyed :)


	3. Prologue III: The Illness

**A/N: **HA HA HA! I learned how to use line breaks :) In any case, yay! Next chapter! But before we start, I would like to thank **Thespianmoonmuzik, MusicOfMadness, LaughterGirl, gOthiCkUrOcHo69, Msdgirl, Elena-san XD, Chuu112, xXxDragonxPhoenixXx, SpringRiverImagination **and a **Guest **who liked my portrayal of Xanxus for reviewing the past two chapters! I should have said thank you in the last chapter, but I was still trying to figure out how the story editing stuff works on this site. Your reviews support and encourage me greatly! And to everyone who has favourited and is following my story, thank you so much! It makes me squeal every time I look at the number :D

Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter as much as you seem to have liked the last. There is only one more part left of the prologue before we can bite into the real story, so I hope I'm giving you all something good to look forward to :) Enjoy!

**Disclaimers: **

June: Oh, sugar bum fluff! I've forgotten to do them in the past two chapters! Flan! Get over here!

Flan: I'm here.

June: ...

Flan: ...

June: Well? Whatcha waiting for?

Flan: Do you not need me?

June: Eh?

Flan: Ok, I'll leave.

June: Huh? Hey! Hold on! You haven't done them yet!

*Flan waves from very far off in the distance*

June: *Sweatdrops* Ok, sorry you guys, I'll try getting one of the others to do the disclaimers next time...

* * *

**Prologue III- The Illness**

Following the lake incident, things went a little bit more smoothly. Xanxus' lessons in academia from Poinsettia continued and he started to teach her how to swim. He was careful about his timing though; he only taught her on weekends, when she normally washed her hair, and only if it was sunny. He found her hair to be a hindrance. It was annoying to see something so useless follow her around everywhere. But it was pretty, and he did enjoy watching her braid it.

The months moved on, and the seasons changed. It was no longer early summer, but late autumn. It was starting to become very cold. Poinsettia had just about learned to swim, although her swimming was...still a bit odd. She didn't move as elegantly as he thought she would, and it occurred to him for all her brains, patience and that sweet personality of hers, she was totally useless when it came to the physical side of things. The more he looked at her in that light, the more she seemed like a doll. But she was a free creature. She was not someone to be imprisoned in a dollhouse. Although she was having fun now, she seemed to dread going back to Japan. Back to her tower. Back to confinement, despite all the riches, in terms of material goods and knowledge, that followed. He was very tempted to ask her to stay with him and his ma, but he had no idea how he would manage to support all of them. At this moment in time, this little girl was the one supporting _them_.

"Hey."

"Yup?"

"Does that mother of yours know you're taking so much food? Won't she care?"

His question was carefully worded to avoid several sensitive areas; although she was patient, there were still certain matters that hurt her. One of them was how he still felt he wasn't doing enough to pay her back. Another was that her mother was possibly not the nicest of women in the world if she was locking her up in a tower. He constantly had to avoid saying 'your ma sounds like a bitch- are you sure she won't get angry and take it out on you if she finds out you're giving away her supplies to sewer rats?' Actually, it was more like _when_ she found out. There was no way anyone in their right mind could miss supplies depleting at such a rate. A little girl suddenly eating five times the amount she normally did was just too weird to not notice. Yeah, this girl didn't eat much, but he and his ma did. Well, his ma was an adult and he was a growing boy.

She waved off his question nonchalantly.

"It's fine. Mother doesn't come home often enough or long enough to notice. And besides, I'm sure she won't mind, once she knows you're my friend."

'Something instinctively tells me to doubt that.' But he kept his opinion to himself.

A bitter autumn breeze brushed past them and shifted some of her loose baby hair on to her face. She shivered as the cold bit into her, so Xanxus took off his jacket and threw it over her head. She brushed the jacket to the side, tucking loose strands of cherry behind her ears and peeked out at him. He gazed out at the water of the lake with an expressionless face. She smiled happily and pulled his jacket on. It was warm.

"Won't you be cold?"

"I'm a man."

His simple replies used to confuse her, but she had begun to understand them. A few words and certain actions said everything. Especially so with him. She continued to observe him. He would actually be handsome, if he didn't frown so much all the time. That was her opinion, though. All of her books had depicted princes as blond, blue eyed and charming. She pondered about what kind of people these charming princes were like in reality and wondered if she would ever meet any.

"Hey! Whadda ya know! If it ain't the little brat! Haven't seen ya in a while, sewer rat!"

Xanxus swore under his breath. He had managed to keep her out of their sight for months until today. How could he have managed to get so careless _now_? He had realised early on that, seeing as he was their main toy, Poinsettia would eventually get dragged into the same crap he got dragged into if she hung around him. To avoid any problems that could include her, he purposely stayed on guard when he was with her. If he saw them in the distance, he would guide her somewhere safe and out of their sight. To make sure they didn't come looking for him, he purposely went to them to pick a fight when the girl wasn't around. He always came back with the occasional scratch, but going to them meant he could pick his terms; the time, the place and the people. It had made things much easier, and the scratches and bruises he acquired had lessened considerably. He still got more than enough to keep them satisfied, but he also got few enough so they were easy to hide from the girl so she wouldn't worry. It only took a pinprick of blood to set her off, and some of the bruises may have even made her faint. He still didn't know whether it was because she was squeamish of injuries or because she was worried about his well-being. He had automatically presumed it was because she was squeamish.

"And who's this little bird?"

"Ain't she a pretty one!"

The bullies had reached their seated place on the hill near the lake. There were only three of them today, and they were all a good bit taller than him. If he were alone, he could probably easily take them out. But he wasn't.

"Xanxus? Who are they?"

"Ogre-men."

Came his reply. She knew from some of the fairy tales he had told her that ogres were dangerous. He had carefully dropped hints in them that should she ever come across something even vaguely like one, she should run as fast and as far away as she could. He hoped that would be enough to prepare her for today.

"What was that, ya little punk?"

One of them growled at him, genuinely looking like an ogre. He ignored him- he was used to it- and looked at Poinsettia out of the corner of his eye. He was glad to see hints of fear in her eyes. Hopefully her fight-or-flight instincts would kick in, and she would run. With this hope in mind, he turned back to the boys in front of him and prepared to take them on.

The biggest one stepped forward and aimed a punch straight at his face. It was obvious which direction his attack was moving in, making it easy to dodge. The other two boys came at him from his left and right, but now that he had dodged the one in the middle, there was a little bit of space in between them for him to slip through, so he did. This did not sit well with the bigger boys, and one of them aimed a fist at his stomach. Xanxus almost managed to dodge, but it caught him in the side and sent him straight into the arms of the other two boys. This was the worst case scenario- if they managed to catch him, then they could easily proceed to pound him to a pulp. He kicked backwards and hit one of the boys in the shin, thereby loosening their grasp, though he wasn't free. The biggest one aimed another fist at his face, and this one was too close to dodge. He had learnt through experience that if a punch was aimed at your face, the easiest way to take the least amount of damage was to turn your head along the direction of the punch. He did so, expecting the impact against his cheek that he had managed to avoid for so many months.

The impact never came, and because he had turned his head to the side, he had missed what had happened. Looking back, he was shocked to find thick, ruby locks wrapped around the boy's wrist. The boy then gave a yelp and fell forward. Xanxus easily side stepped, as the other boys had let go of him from shock, and avoided the scenario where the bully would have fallen on top of him. He watched as the bully rolled down the hill and noticed more red locks uncurling from around his ankles.

The realisation hit him hard. She had just used her hair like a whip. So maybe it had some use, but he still thought it was useless.

'Stupid girl! I wanted you to take the FLIGHT option, not the FIGHT option!'

While the other boys were gaping at the ludicrous amount of hair that was fluttering in the wind, he punched one of them and knocked him out, then kneed the other where the sun never shines. Both of them lay on the floor. The bigger boy had recovered from the surprise hair attack and was charging up the hill in fury.

"Stay away!" Her voice rang out and it was strong without a hint of a quiver. "My hair's dangerous, you know!"

'Yeah, to no one but yourself. I've seen it too many times.'

But the big boy hesitated before he snickered.

"Your hair? How?"

"It's magical!"

"Haha! Yeah right!"

"It is! Why do you think it grows so fast? Watch! I'll cast a spell on you to turn into a frog!"

'How childish.' Was all that went through Xanxus' mind.

But apparently the big boys were childish enough to believe such crap and ran off, dragging their unconscious friend after them. Xanxus stared after them in disbelief. Were those idiots still such kids that they believed in fairy tale spells and curses and whatever? Ignoring his feeling of disbelief, he turned to the little girl.

"Why didn't you run? I told you they were ogre-men! In all the fairy tales, everyone runs away from the ogres!"

"That's true." She nodded her head profoundly. "But! Two people never run away from the ogres- the princess, who always gets caught by the ogres, and the prince, who always slays the ogre and saves her!"

She was happily bouncing away on the balls of her feet. There wasn't a trace of fear on her face.

"Weren't you scared?"

"When you said they were ogre-men, yes." In other words, she had no sense of fear.

He looked at her carefully, and she smiled back cheerfully. Then she looked triumphant.

"What?"

"I told you so!" She grinned at him.

"Huh?"

"I told you that someday, you would protect me, and you would be the only one who could, remember?"

"Are you dumb? You almost got in serious trouble _because_ of me! You wouldn't have needed protection if I wasn't here!"

"But you were. And no one would have protected me if you hadn't."

He stared into her eyes and, as usual, she was being completely honest and ridiculously serious. There really was no point in arguing with an idiot.

He sighed in defeat and held out a hand to help her hold her hair. It was late, and Xanxus didn't want to be here if those goons came back with backup.

He was startled when a warm hand was placed in his rather than the cold locks of rich red he was expecting. He looked at her in surprise.

"Your hands are cold." A frown of worry creased her brow.

"Er, well yeah, it's almost winter."

He was at loss of what to do. Should he drop her hand, pick her hair up and start walking? Or should he ask first? She decided for him by wrapping her hair around her neck like a scarf, and then wrapping it around his. Xanxus, having seen it out so many times now, would have to say that her hair was roughly twenty metres in length. Her hair kept them close, but what kept them even closer was the way she intertwined their fingers to spread the warmth between them.

Xanxus hoped she thought the reddening of his cheeks was just because of the cold weather.

* * *

"Xanxus? Are you here?"

Two days had passed since the attack. The day after, their schedule had resumed as normal. Poinsettia had noticed that Xanxus was acting a little strange, but when she asked him, he had brushed her off and said he was on guard, just in case the ogre-men came back. She believed him...partially. She had a feeling something else was the cause of his strange behaviour.

She had left the issue alone, and had returned home to brush her hair back into her usual braid. If she were in her tower, she wouldn't bother, but her mother had told her very sternly that she must avoid people seeing her extraordinary hair at all costs. People would want to cut it and sell it. Poinsettia believed her- there was one lock that was about a third of the length of the rest of her hair. Her mother had explained to her that people had tried to cut her hair before, but it loses its magic if it is cut, so that lock grew at the normal rate rather than the magical rate the rest of her hair grew at. The magic helped to heal. Her mother had an incurable disease and would die if she didn't get a dose of her hair's magic once a month. That's why it had to be protected; it was one of a kind and very special. It helped to keep someone she loved alive. She wondered if Xanxus had noticed this shorter lock.

Speaking of Xanxus, he hadn't turned up in their usual spot on the morning of the second day. It was odd. Sometimes he came five, maybe ten minutes late, but he was usually there early. So Poinsettia sat on the old, rotting fence nearby and waited a full hour for him, before she began to worry. She thought it would be wise to check if he was at home first to see if a problem had arisen overnight. With this thought, she began to worry about his mother too, wondering if she had taken ill. She had started walking, then jogging and eventually went into a full-blown sprint to get to his house. She was fast when she ran, but she needed to stop so often to catch her breath, she gave up running and just walked the rest of the way. She reached his house, only to find it quiet. That was usual. Since his mother had gotten her job, she normally left early in the morning and didn't some back until late at night. Xanxus and Poinsettia had both assured her that they could cook without burning the house down, so it was safe to leave them at home.

Walking into the house, she wasn't surprised to see the main room completely empty. She listened for noises in the house that suggested Xanxus' mother might be at home, only to realise she had gone to work as usual. But where was Xanxus?

She lithely walked on her toes until she came to his room and gently pushed open the door, which opened with a creak. She poked her head into the room and saw the ragged curtains were still drawn. The room was bathed in darkness, but she could see a figure lying in the bed by the light behind her and using the light leaking through the holes in the curtains.

"Xanxus?"

This wasn't like him. He normally liked having specific times for his naps during the day and never broke the exact timing he himself set.

She tiptoed over to his bed when she got no response from him. He still didn't move. She put a hand on his shoulder to try to shake him awake, but pulled back suddenly as soon as she had touched him.

He was _hot_.

As in, dangerously hot. It was a temperature that was nowhere near normal for a human body. She had read about it books, and had once suffered from a high fever herself. Her mother had cured her within a day, using an amazing herbal concoction. But before she could think of anything useful, she panicked.

"Xanxus? Xanxus! Come on! Wake up! Or move at least! Just do _something_!"

She heard a groan from underneath the sheets and felt relieved she could wake him. If she could wake him up, he wasn't in too awful a state.

"What? Don't be so loud so early in the morning..." His voice sounded funny.

"Xanxus, it's not early anymore- it's already mid-morning."

He turned over and peered at her in the darkness. His eyes were unfocused. She put a hand on his forehead and felt his temperature.

"Your hands are cold."

"Actually, my hands are pretty warm for a cold day like this."

He grunted in response and turned back over again.

"Xanxus."

Another grunt.

"You need to eat something or-"

"Not hungry." He grumbled.

"You need to drink plenty of-"

"Not thirsty." He grumbled again.

She had read about this too; the person who falls ill doesn't feel like eating or drinking anything, but if they don't, they only get worse. She sighed. She had a vague idea of what to do. She would do her best until his mother came home- she was bound to know what to do.

"Xanxus-"

"Go away."

She quietly left the room.

* * *

Xanxus thought he had hurt her. But he couldn't bring himself to think for too long. He felt hot and cold at the same time, his head was pounding, and his body ached all over. He wanted to get up, find her, and say something to make sure she knew he didn't mean anything he said in an uncaring way. He just didn't feel very well.

He heard a noise in his room, but he couldn't register it properly. He felt a cool pair of hands then touch his body, gently turning him so that he was lying on his back. He felt too weak to resist and opened his eyes to meet anxious emerald ones that glittered with the little light that reached the room. Although it was mid-morning, it was still rather dark out.

The coolness of her hands felt nice and soothing against his bothered body. He wondered why she had come back, and his question was answered when a cold, moist flannel was laid against his forehead.

She may have been hurt by his cold, irate responses, but she had come to take care of him all the same.

The thought made him smile slightly and relaxed him enough for him to drift off into oblivion.

* * *

She couldn't tell whether he had just fallen asleep or whether he had left her for unconsciousness. She hoped it was the former. The water was cold in the bowl, but it heated up quickly as she placed the flannel on him. The pipes had gone cold because of the chilly weather, so the water was much colder than it normally was. For the action she was carrying out now, it was good. It helped cool his body down. But it would not be good later when she needed hot water to make him soup and the herbal concoction her mother had once given her before.

It took a few hours, but Xanxus' breathing became calmer than the hard, shallow breaths he had been taking before, and his body temperature did go down. A little. But it was enough to reassure her that she could leave him alone for an hour or two to go out and get all the things she needed. She felt it was entirely her fault he was in such a state. If she hadn't taken his jacket from him two days ago, he wouldn't have fallen so ill. Because she made him ill, she was also going to fix him.

Her journey took her with her basket to the furthest away place first. The abandoned hazelnut farm.

Although it was abandoned, the hazelnuts were growing abundantly and as no one had bothered to pick them in so long, she only had to go to the closest tree to get a half basketful before continuing on her way. She was planning to make hazelnut soup for him. It was her favourite dish. She loved soups in general; the better they were, the more love it seemed that someone had put into it. The sweeter soups always reminded her of the harmonious feeling of having reached a happily ever after.

Her journey continued back almost all the way home, with only a short stop near the hidden oak tree. The entire area was pretty empty of people, and the flora had grown wild. Although that meant there were an awful lot of weeds, it also meant there were many useful herbs available. She scratched her arms on thorns trying to reach some of the herbs and got stung by stinging nettles many times. She had rolled up the sleeves of her thick brown winter dress to avoid rips, but that had left her forearms completely exposed. She could see herbs growing around that could also help to calm the pain and the redness of her arms, so she didn't worry.

After collecting a rather large collection of ingredients that filled the other half of the basket, she began walking back to Xanxus' home. His mother wouldn't be home until late at night. Although the soup she would give him would help him to start recovering, what he really needed were lots and lots of vegetables. She couldn't leave him in such a state to go back to her own house to get them, though. It would take too long.

She was sure Xanxus' mother had vegetables in her house somewhere, but even if she found them, it wouldn't help her a great deal. She didn't know how to make any vegetable soups, and she was sure she wouldn't be able to get him to eat anything else but soup. She made a mental note to go read a vegetable soup recipe book when she got home.

Her worrying had busied her mind and she reached his house sooner than she had anticipated. It was as quiet as she had left it, so she was sure he was still sleeping. She placed her basket on the main table of the house and walked into his room. He was still fast asleep, but his breathing had gotten shallow again. Feeling his forehead, she could also tell that his fever had gone up once more. To give her feet a rest, because she had become worn out in that small walk of hers, she sat on the stool and placed the cold, moist flannel against his forehead. This time, he stirred and dark ruby eyes looked at her tiredly.

"Sorry..."

"What are you apologising for? It's not like you to apologise."

He just stared at her. She was right, after all. If she ever fell ill, he swore that he would look after her in his own way, as she was doing for him right now.

After she was sure his fever decreased some, she left him to go prepare the soup. The running water in his house was never warm, so she would need to search through the cupboards to find utensils to heat the water. She eventually came across all the equipment she needed and set to work; roasting the hazelnuts, chopping, stirring, adding parsnips, a hint of lemon and herbs, until she had her hazelnut soup as a result. Alongside the bowl of soup she poured, she took some mint leaves. She set it out on the little stool near his bed, and gave him the mint leaves first.

"What's this for?" His voice was rough and sounded very dry. He really needed the soup.

"You probably don't feel like eating anything, right?" He nodded.

"This will just help to ease that icky feeling in your throat and it'll make it easier to get the soup down."

He took the leaves and chewed them before he took the bowl. She had wondered if she would have to feed it to him, but he seemed strong enough to feed himself. While he was eating, she left to make the herbal medicine her mother had once made for her. She hadn't put away any of the utensils she had used, so everything was still in the place where she would need them. She then set about making the concoction, and realising she really didn't know how to make it, she settled with making lemon and ginger root tea instead. Both ingredients were good for colds, so she hoped it wouldn't make too much difference if she gave tea to Xanxus as a substitute.

While she waited for the water to boil, she sat and nibbled on some cabbage leaves. She had gotten the feeling that she wouldn't be able to leave soon, so she had found and brought some cabbages with her to make cabbage rolls for herself and possibly for Xanxus' mother for their dinner.

"Where did you get the green stuff from?"

She jumped and turned to see Xanxus leaning against the doorway. She smiled at him before she answered.

"There were some still growing near the farm. They really should have died out by now, but it doesn't really matter. I'm going to make cabbage rolls for your mother and myself for tonight. Do you want some?"

He shook his head. All he really wanted to do was go back to sleep until the heavy feeling in his body left him. He looked at her carefully, noticing red marks on her arms. He didn't say anything about them, but he felt more grateful to her than ever.

Surveying the room, Xanxus could tell Poinsettia's job still wasn't done. What really caught his eye however, was the basket she normally used. It was hidden underneath the table. Taking a closer look around the room with narrowed eyes, Xanxus could see more things left in the wrong places- or just not in their normal place. One of his ma's big bowls and a pot was hidden in the space underneath their old stove. A wooden spoon and a large knife were hidden in a corner next to the stove and the chopping board had been tucked into the small space between the stove and the cupboards.

'Is this girl a girl or a squirrel?'

He wondered if she knew she had a habit of hiding things the way she was and also wondered how long she could have had such a weird habit. What was the point of hiding things she was going to use again in a short while? He shrugged it off as one of her many weird quirks before going back to lie down.

Poinsettia watched him leave. Although she probably should have been worried that he had gotten out of bed when he was so ill, she was glad he could. To her, it meant he was getting his strength back, and the thought relieved her more than anything.

Hours passed by after she fed him the herbal tea. He obviously didn't like the taste of it, but she made sure he drank every last drop before she let him sleep some more. While he slept, she sat by his side on the stool and read one of her new books. Her mother would occasionally bring her new books while they were in Italy. Back in her tower, this happened every time her mother came to see her, but because she was out with her mother, she had more to do, so she didn't get books as often.

Sitting still for hours on a stool gave her a cramp, so she changed her position to sit on the bed. She wasn't sure at what time, but she eventually fell asleep. She could only tell she had fallen asleep when she felt her shoulder being shaken. Someone was trying to wake her up.

"Sweetheart? Are you alright? Why are you still here? Won't you your mama be worried?"

Sleepily opening her eyes, she came to look into a worried pair of chocolate brown eyes. Although some might say her eyes were plain, Poinsettia thought Xanxus' mother had the prettiest and kindest eyes she had ever seen.

"He fell ill..." She replied with large yawn. Beside her, she felt Xanxus stir before he also yawned and looked up at his mother.

"Ma?"

She worriedly looked at them both and decided to deal with her son first.

"Xanxus, get up and have some hot milk before you go back to bed. Poinsettia dear, you really shouldn't sleep in the same bed as him- you might get his cold too."

"Oh..." She felt disappointed. "Shall I go home, then?"

"No, no!" Her reply brightened the little girl's face. "You stay here the night, and sleep in my bed. It's far too dark for a little girl to go home now. Go on, I'll look after Xanxus."

Poinsettia smiled drowsily and went over to the only other room in the house aside from Xanxus' and the main room. She lay down heavily and drifted off to sleep again, although it was harder this time than it had been before. She missed having Xanxus near her- even when he was ill, he had still felt strong and safe.

* * *

**A/N:** ...Um...Did you enjoy? *Shifty eyes*  
I also just noticed that this is an incredibly long chapter- It's almost like chapter one and two put together :P  
So, same as before, if anyone notices any mistakes, please tell me so I can fix them!

Thanks for reading :)


	4. Prologue IV: Goodbye

**A/N: **I... DEEPLY apologize for the late update, but I've had literally no time to even switch my laptop on, leave alone write :S

And very, very sadly, it's going to be like this for a while. Aside from stuff at work being a mess, I've also got my voluntary placement to Japan- which is great, but it means that I now have an excessive amount of forms, etc, etc to fill out, as well applications for university and dance lessons and extra choir rehearsals (it's that time of year again...)

Anyway, the reason for my apology isn't just for this lateness, but also because it will continue to happen, no matter how much I don't want it to. On the plus side, the next chapter is the MAIN STORY! Yessssss! Progress! Of some kind, anyway :P

**Disclaimers:**

June: Mammon, baby! That's your cue! :D

Mammon: Muu... I'm not really a baby. Anyway, this brat doesn't own anything. Bye.

June: Hey! You're supposed to say WHAT I don't own! Mammon! I paid you for this!

Mammon: *in the distance* Not enough...

June: *deep sigh* Alright, I WILL get them done next time! Enjoy!

* * *

**Prologue IV- Goodbye**

It was almost the end of winter. After having woken up in her bed, Poinsettia profusely apologised to her second mother for being such a bother and for having forgotten to make the cabbage rolls for her. She had simply laughed and hugged her, thanking her for looking after her son. The weeks rolled by and Poinsettia was lucky enough not to get ill and her mother still had yet to notice her absence from the villa. Xanxus' mother, on the other hand, was not quite so lucky. She hid her illness from the children, however, and life continued as normal.

She still came over to their house, and his ma began to teach her how to cook. She was taught little techniques that could never be learnt from a book, and his petite squirrel seemed happy to have an actual teacher that was willing to teach her. His ma also seemed to notice that she liked to hide things when she wasn't using them, but like him, she didn't comment on her strange little habit.

Xanxus hoped that the peaceful days they were living in would continue forever, but he could feel that they were about to come to a rather abrupt end. He was right.

They met like they always did, near the fence. But the moment he saw her, he knew something was wrong. Her pose wasn't as straight as it usually was and her shoulders were slumped, almost as if she felt cold.

"Hey!"

She looked up at him with sad green eyes and possibly for the first time, she didn't smile. There was only one question that rang through his head and he had to get it out.

"What's wrong?"

"We're going back home..."

"Your home's here." He bluntly said.

"No... I mean back to Japan... To my tower..."

He stared at her. He felt the wind blow past him and watched as it pulled at some of the loose strands of her hair. He knew it was cold, but his body felt colder than the chilling wind.

"When?" He quietly asked.

At that question, he could see her almost tear up.

"Tonight." She whispered.

The way she had said it told him it was final. There was probably nothing he could do but let her go.

His silence unnerved her. She had hoped he would give her a positive reply, some form of hope she could hold on to. She didn't want to go back to feeling alone. But it wasn't in Xanxus' character to give a happy-go-lucky response. That was her part to play.

"Well then, we'd better make the most of it, right?"

She looked up at him and he grinned at her. She was taken aback by his reply. Did he want her to leave? Did he not like her anymore? Looking carefully at his eyes, she could see he felt hurt and could see the pain building up deep inside. He was doing this for her sake, and she _was_ going to make the most out of it. Wiping away the built up tears, she replied.

"Yeah! Let's go!"

They spent the rest of the day having fun. Or as much fun as they could manage in the cold months. They laughed together, they screamed together, they rolled down frost-bitten hills together, neither caring whether they got ill or not and neither willing to cry.

Eventually, the time came to say goodbye.

"Bye."

"Yeah..."

Was all that passed between them. After that, she was gone.

* * *

It was a Tuesday and one of the less busy days at the inn. So when Xanxus got home at five, his mother was home too. She saw him come in and before she could ask, he answered her unspoken question.

"She's leaving. And she's not coming back."

His ma watched as her son's back retreated into his room. He usually didn't close his door unless he was going to sleep, but he shut it gently this time.

'Oh dear...'

Their separation didn't have any good vibes surrounding it.

* * *

Their separation didn't seem final. If it wasn't final, then what was the point in her leaving?

Well, what could he do? Her mother was bossing her around and he couldn't step into her family issues like that.

Frustrated, he wanted to do something to take his mind off of her. He suddenly thought of the only thing that could- his school homework. There usually wasn't very much set, but Xanxus had left his school work alone for so long that it had built up into a pile that could take him a good few hours to do. He got out his pile and began to work away, hoping it would dull or irritate him enough for him to forget about her for a little while.

* * *

Two and half hours passed before Xanxus showed hide or hair to his ma. When he did, he looked fine. This, however, was what worried her.

"Hey ma, have you seen my language book?"

Language book? Was Xanxus actually doing his homework?

"Um... It was on your stool, the last time I saw it..." _Where Poinsettia last left it..._

"Thanks."

He disappeared into his room again to look for it. His stool was normally placed in the corner just behind the door. When he looked there, he found it wasn't in its usual place. There was only one other place where he could think it would be.

Crouching down, he found the stool with his book on top of it underneath his bed. Just where she would leave it. His little squirrel.

He must have surprised his ma, because she jumped when his door was slammed open. Looking up, she found her son standing with the stool in one hand and his language book in the other.

'Did he just kick the door open?'

"Xanxus...?" She was unsure what to say to him. She couldn't say it was alright, because it wasn't. Looking up at his eyes, she found there was no need to say anything. Rather than finding a broken will, she found a strengthened one, one that was firm and determined.

"Go get her back."

This seemed to strengthen him even more, and she was glad that it did.

"I will."

With that, he dropped both the book and the stool and ran straight out of the house. She looked at both the items on the floor and sighed before she smiled gently. She was surprised that her son had found someone so special to him so soon. It wasn't until he had come into her life that she felt she had found someone special, but it made her happy.

'Yes... You get her back and keep her.'

She could scold him for kicking his door open when he came back, and Poinsettia could scold him for throwing books on the floor when she came back with him.

* * *

Xanxus ran as fast as he could. Which, for a boy his age, was actually pretty fast. He knew the way, although he hadn't ever been to her house before. She had told him of it many times, and there was no way he could miss it. It was cold and completely dark, even though it was only nearing eight at night. Having a brief look at the clouds told him that a blizzard may well be on its way. The sky was already starting to sprinkle snowflakes onto the landscape. Ignoring them, he continued to run. Past the lake, past a third of the farm until he came to the fence that he always found her sitting on. There was a path near it leading into a field. He continued to run along the path until he came across a hill. Over the hill was where her house was supposed to be. He climbed up the hill until he came to a large clump of trees, and from there he could look down into the small valley where the house and truck was. He decided to take a quick breather to build up his strength. He might have to fight his way out with her, and that wouldn't be easy with adults. He could manage the bullies at school, but that was because they were stupid. Her mother obviously wasn't stupid and would not let her daughter go that easily.

'A truck, huh?'

There were bound to be more people than just her mother waiting if the truck was there too. He needed to plan this carefully, and to do that, he needed to get closer. Walking down as quietly as he could, he used the trees for cover until he got to the truck. Peeking around the corner, he saw the river of red hair that identified Poinsettia. Standing next to her was a woman with curly black hair that reached just past her shoulders. Her back was turned to him, so he couldn't see her face. She was talking to a man- a brutish looking man that would be better described as a bear.

"Is that all, Selene?" The man asked.

"Don't be so rude when you speak to me, Mr Stabbington. You know of my status and I expect to be treated as such."

The man grunted in response, which Xanxus took to mean his way of affirming her response.

'Hold on... Why does Stabbington sound familiar?'

Xanxus looked carefully at the man, and noticed the shabby ginger hair and hard brown eyes were oddly familiar too. Before he could put a finger to exactly why, the man moved away as the woman Selene spoke again.

"Poinsettia, go inside and get ready to leave. Your luggage has already been loaded, so we're the only cargo left to board." Her voice was falsely cheerful, but Poinsettia didn't seem to notice at all.

"Yes, mother..." She sounded miserable. Why was her mother making her leave if she obviously didn't want to?

"Now, now, dear. I'm sure you'll see all of your animal friends that you made here again."

"You forgot the trees, too."

"Ah, yes. The trees as well."

It took Xanxus a moment to work out what was going on, and he grinned proudly when realisation hit him. Clever girl... Acting in a childish way and making up such lies meant that she had protected both him and his ma. It also meant that this Selene person didn't know of his existence. Taking her away from her mother might be cruel to the girl, but he could do it much more easily now. He would make sure this turned out well for them both.

Poinsettia ran inside the house, leaving no one outside but the bear man and Selene. Yes, they were two adults, but Xanxus, if he used the flame he had hidden up until now, could definitely take both of them out. Getting ready to attack, he didn't hear the footsteps behind him that were muffled by the thin layer of snow until it was too late. Taking a painful hit to his left temple, he fell to the floor and rolled to the side to find out what had hit him. When he looked up, he suddenly realised why 'Stabbington' had seemed so familiar.

"Chronus and Brutus."

The Stabbington brothers were well renowned for being tough bullies in town among all the younger kids. The man he saw must be their father. They didn't only look brutal, but they fought brutally too. Xanxus had only faced them once before, and could only beat their brute strength using his flames. But now, they had the advantage over him, and there was little to nothing he could do.

He stood up anyway, only to get a punch to the stomach that floored him once more. The boys weren't just bigger than him, but several years older and much more experienced. There had been a rumour that went around saying there father had taught them how to use axes like throwing knives. Looking at their hands, Xanxus could see that both boys held an axe each. One of them had obviously used the back of one to hit his head earlier.

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

Selene turned around and although his vision was beginning to blur, Xanxus could tell one thing that concerned him immensely.

_She's not your mother!_

Selene didn't have any features that even remotely matched Poinsettia's the way a mother and child's should. Her hair was black and curly, while Poinsettia's was red and wavy. Her face was oval, sharp with high cheekbones, while Poinsettia's was heart shaped, without such high cheekbones and had an overall gentle look about it. Her eyes were narrowly shaped and steely silver, unkind, while Poinsettia's were doe-like, a grassy green and sweet. Even though there weren't many similarities between his mother and himself, there were a few that people could easily list off just through appearances alone. One was the determined look that both shared in their eyes, although Xanxus' had always been much stronger. He also had the same nose shape and strong jaw that his mother had.

Selene's fingers were nothing like Poinsettia's either. Poinsettia's fingers were long and delicate, and her hands were gentle. Selene's were also long, but her fingers were cruel as they reached out to grab his hair and pull him up so that she could look at him squarely in the face as she crouched on the ground.

Harsh silver eyes stared into his, looking for any signs of fear, but crimson eyes only reflected defiance.

"So you're the little rat that's been corrupting my little girl, are you?" She purred at him.

"She's not yours!" He growled back.

"Oh? And she's yours now, is she?"

At this, Xanxus remained silent. No, she wasn't his, but he would have liked it if she was. Selene seemed to pick up on this.

"You've grown feelings for her? How cute. You need to throw those away if you wish to survive, little man." She hissed the last part and Xanxus felt like spitting in her face to get her to move away from him. She smelt of lilies, and although the scent should have smelt nice, it overpowered him to the point where it made him feel sick.

"What do you want with her? She's just a girl!"

She laughed.

"Just a girl? Oh, no, dear. Let me tell you a little bit about her, seeing as you'll never see her again. Her parents stole something very precious from me. And now, that girl holds what they stole inside of her. I need the little princess to live. That's all."

Stole? What could they have stolen that a mere girl could hold inside herself? And princess? Was the girl a princess? It would make sense if Selene wanted a ransom, but she seemed to want more than that.

_She's using you!_

Xanxus couldn't make sense of it anymore. All he knew was that Poinsettia was in danger and he was the only one who knew enough to do something about it. He thrust his head forward head-butting her chin, effectively loosening her grip on his hair which enabled him to bite her hard enough for her to let go of him completely. Kicking backwards, he felt his foot connect with something that was definitely human flesh and was satisfied when he heard a grunt. But before he could move towards the house to get to the girl, something solid crashed down on to his head and he almost lost consciousness.

Lying on the snow covered ground, half-conscious and bloody, he could only pick up small parts of what followed.

"Little rat!" Selene hissed as she kicked his side. Her kick was surprisingly strong for that of a woman.

"What do you want us to do with him?" One of the brothers grunted out. It was probably the one he kicked.

"Take him away. There's no reason to kill him. He won't be able to touch the little princess. Let him wallow in the futility of his feelings for the girl for the rest of his pathetic life." She unpleasantly purred her orders.

Xanxus wanted to fight back, but if he did that right now, they would only beat him back down again. If the brothers were going to drag him off, he could take them out before coming back for the other two. He felt muscular arms lift his limp body from the ground and drag him away. After counting to twenty slowly in his head, Xanxus lit both his hands with his flames and punched outwards towards the brothers. Neither being prepared for such strength and heat were taken out immediately.

He was barely conscious, but if he didn't get back Poinsettia, he would probably never see her again. If he could take her away right now, then he could find a way to keep them alive in the future. No matter how hard it would be, they would find a way.

Somehow, he managed to make his way back to the house, only to find the lights off with the truck gone. If the truck was gone, then so was she. Searching his surroundings, he tried to find any sign of the truck, but it was nowhere to be seen and his vision was blurring severely. Had he gotten lost and taken too long? Or had they left so fast that there was no way for him to catch up, even if he tried?

"POINSETTIA!"

That was the first and the last time he would ever say her name. In frustration, he slammed his fist against the tree he was leaning against, and his flames of rage snapped the thick trunk in half, causing it to crash to the ground.

* * *

It had been almost two hours since Xanxus had left to find Poinsettia and his mother was beginning to worry. Even if he couldn't bring her back, it shouldn't take him this long to come home. Just as she made the decision to try and find him, their front door creaked open and a seemingly unconscious Xanxus stumbled in. As she went to meet him, he fell straight into her arms. She noticed that there was dried blood on him in several places, but what worried her most was the strained look on his face that signalled he had given up.

* * *

**A/N:** Oooooooh... They got split up :( As ever, please tell me if you find any mistakes!

By the way, you guys, did I do something wrong in the last chapter? Barely anyone reviewed D:  
In any case, I hope you all liked this chapter (yes, I know, their seperation is hard to like but still... It has to happen) and look forward to the next one! :D


	5. Chapter I: Reunion

**A/N: **I'm going to apologize... _again_ for the late update- but like I said before, it will happen. On another note, YAY! We're getting close to Christmas! It's my favourite time of year and also the reason Poinsettia was named the way she was :) Um... I was going to say something else, but I forgot, so I'll say it next time :P

But yeah, leaving real life aside, here's the FIRST OFFICIAL CHAPTER! :D

**Disclaimers:**

June: GUESS WHAT?! I HAVE RELIABLE PEOPLE TO DO THE DISCLAIMERS THIS TIME! Haru and Kyoko will be our lovely hostesses for today! :D

Haru: Hahi?! Are we on?

Kyoko: I think so, Haru-chan.

Haru: *clears her throat and speaks very seriously* June-nee-chan does not own any of the characters used in this story apart from Poinsettia! They, and Kyoko-chan and myself, belong to the one and only Akira Amano! Although her story was inspired by Walt Disney's Tangled, she has borrowed nothing more than their title and some of their scenes! It has not been stolen!

June: *sweatdrops* Thanks, but you really didn't need to do it so seriously...

Kyoko: June would also like you to know that she used a doll maker to make the image for her story. If you type in _Azaleas Dolls_ into your favourite search engine, you will find the site she used. The particular maker she used was the _Heroine Fan-Art Creator._

June: *nods vigorously* Yup, I'm no genius and can not make any art I do look that good. But seriously, if any of you writers are stuck with character looks, it's good to play around with some of the doll makers to help give some more inspiration.  
So, to finish up here, Haru and Kyoko will bake and give everyone who reviews electronic cookies!

Haru and Kyoko: We hope you enjoy them!

June: And I hope you enjoy the chapter! I think I've talked too much now, so I'll let you read :)

* * *

**Chapter I- Reunion**

Years passed. Fifteen, to be precise. Xanxus had climbed his way to the top and become strong, just like many thought he would. He had suffered on his way up, but he had dealt with it in his own way. As for the girl? She was, as far as he was concerned, a forgotten memory.

The year following her departure, he was taken into the Vongola family. At the end of the very same year, his ma had died from an illness that she'd had for so long, it had become terminal.

"Find her, Xanxus..." Was the last thing his ma said to him. Not wanting to upset her on her deathbed, Xanxus had promised her he would. After having gone to his old neighbourhood to say his final goodbyes to her and have her buried, he left, promising no return. He swore he would forget his past and only focus on his present goal to become Vongola Decimo. To those ends, that meant forgetting his mother and the girl. So he had. And he had come a long way because of it.

The Mafia was a cruel place, no one could say otherwise. Xanxus couldn't allow any form of weakness to hinder him, and turned his past feelings of futility into rage. He converted the unfairness of life to his mother and him into rage. He transformed his frustration at losing the only ones he had ever loved into rage. And then, he used his rage to wipe his past from his mind, only looking forward, and destroying anyone who got in his way. No one had stopped him so far.

But fate really must have had something against Xanxus, as the one thing he worked so hard for turned out to be, as everything else had, futile. And when he tried to go against fate, he was punished by being turned into an iceberg by the man he had called father for eight, long years. When he was finally set free, he found a middle school brat trying to take his rightful place as Vongola Decimo. As ever, he fought, but fate once more had a bitter ending in store for him. Xanxus wouldn't let things lie as they were; he still had his own strength, something that nothing, not even fate, could take away from him.

Aside from that, he also had all of his faithful men to beat to a pulp whenever he felt like it and all the best liquor and high quality meat he could get his hands on. For the moment, it could be said that he was content.

* * *

"VOOOOII! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY A SECOND TIME, FUCKING TRASH!"

"Ah~ Squ-chan, calm down~ We've almost caught him~"

"Ushishishishi, souda na, sakusen-taichou~ You're getting so riled up at only one target~"

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN, CALM DOWN?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT KUSO-BOSSU WILL DO TO US IF WE LET HIM GO AGAIN?! AND YOU WON'T BE LAUGHING IF WE FAIL, GAKI!"

"We must not fail Bossu!"

"Muu. This is starting to get on my nerves. All five of us are here and we still can't catch him?"

"VOI! SHUT UP AND CONCENTRATE, IDIOTS!"

'The Arena Famiglia, huh... 'Sand' suits them perfectly. They all slip through your fingers just like it.' Squalo thought as he led his men forward.

They had already failed once before in trying to catch the same man. The Varia do not fail. Consequently, they would not fail now. They were in Japan and had chased the man almost all over the world. It had started with a mission in Canada as Belphegor and Mammon had chased him all the way to Peru before they lost him. Their second attempt had started in Ireland, leading them towards France. After a quick stop at their headquarters in Italy, they had continued to Romania, past Turkey and through China, before eventually arriving in Japan. They were in one of the more remote places of Japan, in a dense forest north-east of Mount Fuji. Because of the famous forest Aokigahara just north-west of Mount Fuji, there were some hotels nearby enough for them to go on their mission. Even their boss had come along, mainly with the threat that if they failed, he would kill them all as soon as they returned. Hence their long and arduous trip across the globe just to seize one man.

Squalo, to put it plainly, was irritated. One of the Vongola spies had come across something very serious while investigating the Acerbi Famiglia, only to be wiped out swiftly by the Arena Famiglia before she could pass on any information. Similarly, a spy sent to the Arena Famiglia was wiped out even more quickly by the Acerbi Famiglia. Something was definitely wrong, as information from both families was being leaked and it was obvious they had formed an alliance to go against the Vongola. They couldn't work out whether the leaked information was correct or not, and as all of their spies were getting killed, the only thing left to do was to find a higher up in one of the families, hunt them down and squeeze the truth out of them before it became too late to act. Although Varia was an assassination squad, they were also very good at interrogation. If they got the man they were after, going on from there would be a cinch. Only problem was that he was harder to capture than they had originally thought and the chase was wearing down even the top officers. It would be pointless to call their boss because he would only blow up whoever they were chasing and the hunt would be meaningless.

Even though Squalo's body was in top form, he was getting tired of jumping from tree to tree and could see the men behind him wearing down too. Dawn was streaking its way across the sky which was in their favour; the more they could see, the easier it would be to aim something sharp at the man and take him down without killing him. Their advantages were only building up, as the man also looked like was tiring out. How many hours ago had their helicopters crashed and had they been running through the trees? By the looks of it, at least eighteen.

They needed to end the chase and fast, especially if they wanted to escape their boss' wrath.

* * *

Poinsettia hummed to herself as she cleaned her tower.

'What should I do today?'

There was a whole ton of things her mother had provided her with so that she wouldn't get bored. And she never really did; it was just lonely sometimes. She was glad she had Hue and Fina at such times, although Fina was more of a pest than a friend.

"Fina! Come on girl, _please _move? You do this every day!"

And she said the same thing to her every day. She couldn't sweep under the rug if the fluffy black cat was sleeping on it. She was really big for a cat and not very easy to move. As usual, all she got was a hiss from the feline before she turned her tail on Poinsettia and lay down to go back to sleep. Hue came out from underneath her hair and clicked his tongue at her. She was glad she had some form of a friend, even if it was a spherical-like chameleon. She would have preferred a human being, but any companionable creature did her just fine.

'Where are you now, Xanxus?'

She thought of him every now and then. It made her heart hurt, somehow, so she usually didn't linger on it for very long. Looking up at the clock, she noticed it was only quarter past seven in the morning. How could she do the laundry, wipe, polish, wax and sweep the floor in just fifteen minutes? She _could_ brush all seventy meters of her hair, but because she brushed it every morning, noon and night, it was usually so untangled that it only took her fifteen minutes in all. Braiding would take an hour or two, but that was boring. She looked out of her window at the buildings below her. They looked like boxes from where she was standing. She could go down and play hide and seek with Hue the way she often did. There were hundreds of places to hide in the archives, but she had probably discovered them all because she had played there so much over the years. Below her tower was her mother's extensive library. There were thousands upon thousands of books stashed there, alongside other materials, like maps, manuscripts, musical scores and even some old scrolls. Poinsettia had learnt many languages from that library, carefully decoding all the different books to work out what they meant. Although she could read many different languages, she had no idea how any of them were supposed to be spoken. She had asked her mother once for a book that could teach her how, but her mother had replied she would need a teacher for something like that, not a book. When Poinsettia had asked her to teach her, her mother had replied that she had no need for such a skill. She had no one to speak the languages to, except her mother, after all. Poinsettia had wanted to remind her that she could already speak more than one language, like English, Italian, Portuguese and several others, despite not needing to know them, but had kept quiet. There were times when she could tell her mother would be angry for pursuing something and that was one of them.

Another was wanting to leave her tower. She was allowed into the libraries through the spiral steps in her tower, but under no condition was she allowed to leave the buildings themselves. Poinsettia had followed this rule very carefully, as her mother was very timely. Whenever Poinsettia was about to do something that she wasn't supposed to, she always seemed to pop out of nowhere, just in time to stop her.

"No! Fina! Don't eat that bird!"

She sighed heavily as she tried to wrestle the suffering bird from Fina's jaws. When she got close enough, she could tell it was too late to save the poor creature and left the matter alone. Although she felt bad for the bird, she used the chance to quickly sweep under the rug before the silver-eyed cat came back to claim her place there. Both Fina and Hue were brought by her mother to her tower. Fina was supposed to get rid of any rats or mice, while Hue got rid of the insects that lingered around. Both had done their jobs very well for a few years now, although Fina had killed more than just rodents, and Poinsettia finally had some companions. Her mother had probably noticed that she was starting to get lonely when she went away for her business trips, so she got her some new friends. Poinsettia was ever grateful for having such a loving mother.

Having a look around the large cylindrical room, she decided she would paint something; only problem was that she had to find space on her walls. She loved painting and noticing this, her mother had started to bring her sets of paint alongside the usual book she would bring. On special occasions, like her birthday, Poinsettia was allowed to ask for a book or a set of paints that she specifically wanted. Her wish was generally voiced on her birthday though, so she normally didn't get her present for a few days, sometimes weeks later. It didn't matter to Poinsettia; she wasn't going anywhere, anyway. Her birthday was tomorrow, and she doubted her mother would come by again tomorrow. If she wanted her present, she would have to ask for it during her mother's visit today.

She looked up at her clock and thought there might be some space behind it for her to paint on. Lifting the clock, she found she had already painted there as well. She sighed and looked at the time; seven thirty already. Her mother would drop by for a visit in about...ten hours. Continuing to look around for some space, she found some above her fireplace. There was a curtain covering the space, but if she moved the curtain, she would have a good sized rectangle eight feet long to paint on. It was high up though. Almost unthinkingly, she decided she would use her hair as a safety rope across the rafters to lift her up so she could reach.

Having gotten all of her paints ready, she started working on her rectangle and just over a full hour passed. She had almost finished the basic background for the scene she wanted to paint. She was at the point where she could sit on the shelving just above the fireplace to continue. Just as she was about to brush her first stroke of olive after she had comfortably sat down, she heard a very strange noise.

Looking at her shoulder, she found Hue sitting on her shoulder, hiding behind her hair. Why was he scared? Was Fina looking at him like a snack again? But looking down at her rug, she could tell this was not the case. The cat had bristled and was starting to hiss, staring at the largest window in the tower. Her window seat was one of her favourite places to sit. She charted the stars there and found it easy to daydream while seated there.

Hearing the noise again, Poinsettia lithely hopped down from her seat and took a peek out of the window. What she saw made her gasp, and back away very quickly from the window.

There was an ogre-man using two knives to climb up the side of her tower. And it was only quarter to nine in the morning.

* * *

'Damn it! It's already quarter to nine!' Squalo thought as they continued their chase. If they didn't have their target by ten, boss was going to skewer them, and he would find a way to do it without a knife or sword of any kind.

The man suddenly disappeared. Squalo and the others came to an abrupt stop. The forest hadn't gotten any thicker and he doubted the man they were chasing could turn into sand to hide on the forest floor.

"Hmm... The prince thinks the target turned into sand and hid on the forest floor, don't you think, Squ-senpai?"

Squalo was tired and cranky and Bel's jab at him didn't make him feel any better.

"PUT A CORK IN IT AND DO YOUR JOB, KUSO-OUJI!"

"Bossu will kill you if we don't find him." Stated Levi.

"VOI! WHADDYA MEAN HE'LL KILL ME? HE'LL KILL ALL OF US, IDIOT!"

Squalo, in his usual bad tempered way, gave Levi a strong kick to the back that sent him flying. His kick would kill a normal man, but they were Varia. Levi would live. As he kicked Levi, he expected him to slam into the wisteria covered boulders, only to find he went straight through the boulders.

Squalo narrowed his eyes and hopped down from the tree branch he was standing on to the ground. Not knowing the area well, he placed his footing carefully until he came to a stop directly in front of the wisteria covered boulders.

"Squ-chan~? What's up~?"

Bel and Lussuria also jumped off of their branches and joined him on the ground, as Mammon floated down to where they were. Squalo stretched out a hand and his hand went straight through the curtain of over-grown wisteria. Using his hand to brush them aside, the team found Levi and the place where their target had probably disappeared to.

It was picturesque, really. The boulders were huge and formed a tunnel through to the cliffs that in turn made the valley into a basin shape. By the looks of if, the way they had come in was also the only way out. The entire area was filled with lush green grass with a lake to their right. Squalo noticed there was a waterfall that fuelled the lake behind the buildings that were about a hundred metres in front of them. The buildings themselves were the only thing that ruined the painting; they were all very cuboid-like and had no special features to them at all. The only thing that could be called pretty about any of the structures was the tower that was behind the set of boxes. It was a high tower, probably fifty or sixty metres tall. It was also a tower which their target had almost scaled to the top of.

"VOI! STOP RUNNING AWAY, TRASH!"

He set off for the tower with his men following closely behind. Quickly remembering their entrance point, Squalo gave Mammon an order.

"Put an illusion up so he can't leave!"

Mammon stayed behind a moment to carry out his order before he caught up with the others. While each was scaling up the tower in their own way, Mammon just had to fly up, so he would catch up to them easily. Squalo was the first through the window, with Bel and Lussuria close behind. As soon as Squalo stepped into the room, he did a quick survey and was taken aback to see such a...girly room. It was a circular room, matching the tower's overall cylindrical shape, with a set of wooden steps leading upwards into what looked very much like a bedroom, from where he was standing. Directly below the steps was a doorway that led into the kitchen, which was directly in front of him. He could tell there was more than just the one large window that they had come through, but all the other windows seemed to be closed so the majority of the tower was in darkness.

They couldn't have missed their target by more than a minute. It wasn't long enough to hide somewhere decent enough that a squad of assassins couldn't find him. Squalo took a deep breath to yell something out to the others, when he felt something hard meet his head with a clang, before everything went black.

* * *

Squalo awoke to something slick and weird in his ear. Whatever it was disappeared as he groaned and when he found his movement restricted, it only made him groan more. Blinking, he took in his surroundings. He was facing the window that he had come in through, but the window was now closed. Looking around, he saw a large mirror which showed exactly what situation he was in. He and all of his squad members had been tied down to chairs by something dark, strong, and seemingly red. Was that blood-stained rope? He also noticed that he was the only one awake and that Mammon was missing. Had the infant bastard managed to buy his way out? Squalo had always thought he had valued his money more than his life, but maybe he was wrong. The others looked so tired that they had probably fallen asleep rather than stayed unconscious. He also found a clock to look at in the mirror's reflection and found it was well past ten; it was almost twelve. They were going to get grilled when they got back. Literally.

It was very dark around the outskirts of the room and Squalo looked up to find the reason as to why. There was a small window on the cone shaped ceiling that only let a little bit of light in past the thick wooden beams, but what really caught his attention was that he found the same thing that was restricting his movement hanging up there. It fell over the beams in a waterfall till it reached him and his men; with the light shining on it, Squalo began to figure out what he was seeing, although he couldn't really believe it.

"Is that...hair?" He hesitatingly murmured, though he was certain no one would give him an answer. As an assassin, he could deal with blood-stained rope. But hair? _Hair?_

Peering further up into the structure of the wooden beams, he found the source of all the hair. There was a figure hidden in the shadows of the beams and a voice that was tinted with fear rang out, echoing in the space of the tower.

"Struggling..." The voice was definitely that of a girl's. "Struggling is pointless!"

The girl then seemed to easily hop down from one beam to the next until she landed on the floor. He couldn't clearly see her, but he could hear the patter of her feet and wondered why she was barefoot.

"I know why you're here. And I'm...not _afraid_ of you." The way her voice was trembling made it obvious she was afraid. Maybe not a lot, but definitely a little.

"What?" Squalo was tired and he didn't have any patience. How could this girl know about their mission?

The girl slowly stepped out from the shadows and Squalo had to admit, she was quite pretty. She looked about sixteen and although the length of hair freaked him out a little, it had the healthy, silky shine to it that labelled it as beautiful. She was sylphlike; probably a head smaller than him and she had a very dainty, fragile look about her. A frown reigned on her heart shaped face and large, green eyes looked at him untrustingly.

"Who are you? And how did you find me?" As she spoke, she raised a frying pan up, using both her hands to hold it firmly.

'Was that how she took me out? And all of my men? DAMN IT! THAT'S SO ANNOYING AND WEIRD!'

Although he felt tired and irritated, years of training wouldn't allow him to let it show. Apparently he had been too quiet for too long, because she spoke again before he could think of questions to ask.

"Who else knows my location?"

"What? Voi! Who cares who knows you're location?! I'm on a mission, bitch! LET ME GO!"

This seemed to take her aback as her arms drooped with the pan hanging loosely in her hands.

"Wait... What mission?"

"We were chasing a man who came into this tower. _Where is he_?" Squalo all but growled at her. At his question, she smiled smugly at him and crossed her arms before she replied.

"I've hidden him. Somewhere you'll never find him."

'She's not talking about protecting him from us. She must have knocked him out too. And hidden him? What's the hell's wrong with this girl?'

Squalo took a brief look around the room again and noticed a long curtain that was probably made to cover the large window seat. His assassination experience told him that was where her hiding place was.

"He's behind that curtain, isn't he?"

The frying pan came into contact with his head once more and he was knocked out cold for the second time that day.

* * *

It was three in the afternoon when Xanxus woke up. The time difference between Japan and Italy had taken its toll on him. He had warned his men that he would burn them alive with his guns if they weren't back with the target by ten, and it was well past their deadline.

Lifting himself off the plush couch he lay on, he looked around the hotel floor for any sign of his top officers, only to find none. Grabbing one of the grunts by the collar, he ordered him to use the tracking device installed in his subordinates' watches to find their whereabouts.

One of the newbies had picked up enough gall to suggest that, because of their worldwide chase, it might be a good idea if everyone had tracking devices that they could follow, just in case. Normally, Xanxus would have put his head through a wall just because he felt like it, but he intuitively knew the idea was a good one and had them all wear them. The kid had gotten away unscathed that day, so Xanxus had put his head through a wall the next day.

The grunt he had sent off earlier came scurrying back with a monitor for his boss to look at. Observing the screen almost carelessly, Xanxus found all five of his top officers in one spot. Searching through the recorded feed, he could also tell they had been in the same spot for the past five hours. He sensed they weren't in serious danger, but no other explanation added any sense as to why they would all decide to be sitting ducks for a couple of hours. He growled under his breath.

'Trash. What the fuck have you gotten into this time?'

* * *

Xanxus walked through the dense forest with a small monitor in his hand and with Bester by his side. Bester was strong and useful to have around when Xanxus didn't know exactly what he was getting himself into. They had been walking for over two hours before they found a large set of wisteria covered boulders that stood in their way. Xanxus was just about to blow them apart when Bester seemed to walk right through the boulders. Xanxus followed the Liger past the wisteria curtain and into the open area beyond it.

Xanxus casually looked around the area until a tower caught his eye. Something felt slightly...off, about that tower. He looked down at the monitor, only to have it confirm that this was the place where his useless subordinates were and was about to step forward when his second-in-command's roar reached his ears.

"VOI! WOULD YOU CUT THAT OUT?!"

Xanxus had Bester return to his ring before he strode down the path through the box-like buildings that led to the tower. If Squalo could be that loud, it was most probable that everything was fine and there had been no need for him to leave his comfortable position on that couch.

He was going to barbeque his subordinates when he found them.

* * *

The second time he awoke, Squalo once again felt something slick in his ear. But this time, he came to fast enough to see the rotund chameleon's tongue attached to the side of his face, which he could feel was in the inside of his ear.

"VOI! WOULD YOU CUT THAT OUT?!"

He shook the chameleon off his shoulder and heard it leave with a squeal. He wasn't sure how long he had been out for, but he felt more rested now. He could deal with whatever this girl was going to throw at him.

"_Now_ he's hidden somewhere you'll never find him." She stood with her arms crossed, looking proud of herself. Okay, maybe not _everything_ was included in the 'whatever'.

Squalo heard a loud yawn to his right and found Lussuria to only just be waking up. Turning to his left, he could see Bel and Levi also rousing from their very much needed slumber, blinking sleep away from their eyes.

'At least if she's hidden him, it means we haven't completely lost our target.'

Even if they had gone well past the deadline, ultimate failure was not allowed. They could still save their squad's reputation. Speaking of deadlines, Squalo looked up to the clock on the wall to find out the time. His face fell at what he saw.

"Ack! It's past five already?! VOI! YABAI! Bossu is gonna kill us!"

"Mou, Squ-chan, shinpai suru na~! Bossu can't find us all the way out here~"

"Shishi, you commoners have forgotten about the tracking devices. But the prince thinks everything will be fine if we get the target."

"Hmm... Speaking of our target, where is he?" Levi looked around as he tried to answer his own question. Squalo had no idea where he was, but had no doubt that he could find the girl's hiding place as easily as he did the first time. After all, what could an untrained little girl do to a group of highly trained assassins?

_Except_ make a fool out them using only her hair and a frying pan. And a little frog.

The main problem here was their boss, not the girl. Almost as if on cue, Squalo heard the familiar sound of his boss' guns and instantly paled.

'Speak of the fucking devil.'

Poinsettia was very much confused. Normally, when people were tied up, they got scared. Yet these men seemed to have absolutely no fear of her whatsoever. What was really funny was that a strange noise outside seemed to really freak them out in a way she couldn't. It sounded kind of like rockets...or what she imagined rockets would sound like. She wondered what the noise was when the white haired man, who she had learnt was called Squalo, answered her question before she could ask it.

"Shit. It's Boss." All of the men went very pale.

They had said before that their boss was going to kill them, and seeing them so afraid probably meant their boss was a really scary ogre-man. She figured she should hide and pull a sneak attack on him the way she had with his men. She had used up half of her hair to tie the others up, so her ends weren't free for her to use as a whip if she needed to. Her frying pan and her sneak attack would have to do.

Squalo watched as the girl scurried away into the shadows of her tower once more. He thought she was wise for hiding from his boss; he was a man to be feared, after all. But then it dawned on him that she wasn't hiding out of fear, but rather as part of a sneak attack, in which case, she was just plain stupid. Before he could express his thoughts to her, his boss' voice growled at them as the large shutters of the window seat flew open and there was their boss in all his rage-clad glory.

"_Fucking trash. What the hell are you doing?_" A demonic aura, as ever, surrounded him completely. He came in through the window, lessening the amount of power he was using in his guns, landing before them on the window seat and stepped down to glare at them threateningly. The girl was right behind him in the shadows and she inched forwards. Squalo wasn't worried about his boss- he could take care of himself- but the girl would definitely die if she tried to pull a stunt on his boss the way she had with them. Before he could open his mouth to warn her, she stepped out into the light and voiced a question directly to his boss.

"Who are you?"

Squalo could only think of the girl's demise as his boss turned to face her. Yes, he was an assassin, but he had enough heart to dislike little girls being killed, even if they were stupid little girls. But his boss' reaction that followed surprised him, more than he would ever care to admit.

"Scoiattoli?"

* * *

**Translations:**

_Japanese_

Souda na- That's right

Sakusen-taichou- Strategy captain

Kuso- Shit

Gaki- Brat/punk

Ouji- Prince

Yabai- lit. Dangerous, usually used to mean crap

Shinpai suru na- Don't worry/never mind

_Italian_

Scoiattoli- Squirrel

* * *

**A/N: **Mmm... Yeah, I think that's all the translations and I don't think I've made any mistakes... If I have missed something, please tell me!

Anyway, how was that? They finally meet up after so long! And it was a kind of long chapter, too. Very satisfying to write :) Although I must admit, I was pulling my hair out for half of it :S. Oh, and another thing I forgot to mention (which I think is what I forgot at the top...), at this moment in time, I have the BEGINNING and the ENDING to my story. As in, I've got the next chapter almost finished and I've got the last two chapters done. But I have absolutely NOTHING in between. From now until the end of my life, I curse writer's block. How could anyone have come up with the existence of something so horrible?!

Yeah, you guessed it, even slower process from now on :( But I'll get there, I promise!

SO! Review and get yummy cookies made especially for you by Kyoko and Haru! Hope you enjoyed and I'll see ya next time!


	6. Chapter II: The Rules of the Tower

**A/N:** Eeeelllloooo again! After so long, THERE IS FINALLY AN UPDATE! Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone! Think of this chapter as a Christmas present, if you like :) I seem to have gathered some wonderful readers- your reviews make me jump off walls and ceiling and doors and other stuff that shouldn't be jumped off of :D I shower tidal waves of cookies upon you all! AND HOLY CRAB! We've passed the 50+ point for follows! And reviews and favs are close behind! HAPPY AUTHOR TO THE EXTREME! I shall stop my ramblings and allow you to read XP

**Note:** This story is set after the Arcobaleno's curse is removed- think of it as me continuing from where Amano-sensei left off. By the way, did anyone else notice in the last chapter that Xanxus had his arm, despite having it sawed off earlier, and there was no explanation for it what-so-ever?

**Disclaimers:**

June: H-hello...

Hibari: This herbivore doesn't own anything.

June: U-um, a-actually, I kinda, sorta, own the laptop I wrote it on... And Poin-

Hibari: You can not 'kind of' or 'sort of' own anything. Do you own it or not?

June: Y-yes! I own it!

Hibari: Hm. You're crowding.

June: *waves from the other side of the world* PLEASE ENJOY!

* * *

**Chapter II- The Rules of the Tower**

"Who are you?"

Xanxus knew that voice. It was as light and melodious as ever, although it had matured slightly over the years. He froze and calmed his raging temper to observe his surroundings properly. He had assumed his subordinates had been tied up with rope, as what bound them was a rather dark colour. Looking carefully, he recognised the dark, rich red that he had been so fond of. He recognised _that_ _hair_. But he wouldn't believe it until he saw it. So he turned ever so slowly, to find bare little feet coming from the shadows, followed by a forest green dress with her hair flowing behind her like a river. And there she was.

"Scoiatolli?"

Everybody in the space of the tower became very still. Xanxus had turned around to look at the girl. In his eyes, he could see the little princess he had once known had grown into a mature princess. Her eyes were the same lush green, but her face had become slimmer, less childlike. The front part of her hair had been cut short to reach her chin, spiking slightly and making her appearance like that of a pixie. Looking at her carefully, he noticed the few freckles on her face had yet to disappear, and he found he liked the fact that they were still there. Her figure was that of a young woman's rather than a child's because she had grown, and the height difference between them seemed to have increased. She probably only just came up to above his shoulders. He found he liked that too. That was all he could take in before the stillness was shattered.

"How do you know about my habit of hiding things?" She asked suspiciously. Levi, being the idiot he was, ignored the girl's explanation and roared.

"Mammon! Don't use illusions on Bossu!" It took him a moment to notice that Mammon wasn't even in the room, which resulted in him and the other captives turning their heads to try and find the infant who was their illusionist. A resounding clang stopped them in their tracks and they turned their heads to find the source of the noise. It had come from the girl's frying pan hitting the surprisingly warm stone floor, but the one who had dropped it was no longer there.

They looked up to find the girl's arms had been flung around their boss and she looked like she was clinging to him for dear life. This shocked all four men into further silence. They were stunned more than they would have ever thought possible when Xanxus wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close to him as if he knew her.

'What the hell is going on?' Squalo thought and he voiced his thoughts which shattered the silence.

"VOI! What the hell is going on?!" As far as he and his men were concerned, their boss didn't hug anyone. Ever. He was the boss of Varia, and showing affection was... It was just...no. Squalo had known him for over a decade and he had never shown affection to anyone, so what was he doing now?

Squalo's question was never answered as the girl began to speak to their boss, rapidly and unhesitatingly. As if she knew him too.

"Oh! My gosh! Xanxus, it's been so long! You're so tall! And your voice got so deep! I didn't recognise it for a second! Where did you get those scars from? And hey! You changed your hair! Why did you change your hair? What have you been doing all these years? Do these people work for you? Are they ogre-men? Does that mean the other person who came in also works for you? Why-"

Xanxus silenced her easily with a hand over her mouth. It had been fifteen years. _Fifteen years_. She had changed, yet she hadn't changed a bit.

'Damn. My brain's not working straight.'

Her flight to him had dazed him and he had held her close without thinking twice about it. It was once she had started talking about his subordinates that he had been brought back down to reality, and there was one pressing issue that took priority over all others at the moment.

"Where's your mother?"

Poinsettia looked up at him, confused. Why would he want to know such a thing?

"She's out at the moment. I don't know when she'll come back..."

She paused to look up at the clock.

"...but it should be pretty soon now."

She had imagined their first meeting many times before; her prince in shining armour and her beloved mother. It would be a wonderful meeting. Xanxus could tell her of all the things Poinsettia was sure he had accomplished and her mother would be so impressed. They could have some rhubarb pie together and reminiscence about old times.

Xanxus remembered his first meeting with her mother, and it had not been a pretty one. He should probably get rid of her, but he couldn't do anything in front of the girl. She was bound to be sensitive over watching a murder, especially of her fake mother. His thoughts were brought to a halt as she started to speak to him again.

"I didn't know you noticed my habit of hiding things. When did you find out about it?"

"It was obvious, especially when stuff around the house only went missing after you came and went."

"Oh..." She laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head.

Okay, that was it. Squalo had had enough. A vein could be seen very clearly on his head as he used as much volume as he could muster.

"VOOOOOOIII! KUSO-BOSSU! GIVE ME SOME ANSWERS, DAMN IT!"

Xanxus and Poinsettia both looked at him, and Poinsettia began to wonder if it was normal for people to swear at their superiors or whether this man was just special. He also seemed to have a special voice, to be able to raise it to that kind of volume.

"Ne, ne, Bossu, is this little cupcake your special someone~? Oh~ you're so mean not to have introduced her to us before~!"

"If she is, she must have royal blood, right Bossu? Shishi~"

Levi looked at the girl very closely. She was nothing like what he had imagined for his dear boss. But if that was the kind of girl that his boss liked, than he would learn to accept, so long as she never let him down.

"You must never let down Bossu!" He looked at her intensely and she turned to look at him.

"Hai! Makasete!" She showed her fist to show just how serious she was.

"VOI! Don't say that like you're giving him off to be married!"

"Shishi, Levi's such an idiot~"

"Come now, Bel-chan, don't treat your onii-san like that~!"

"Oh, they're brothers?"

"Oh no, cupcake, they're not related by blood, but we are one, big, happy family~!"

"VOI, LUSSURIA! DON'T MAKE US SOUND SO SOFT!"

"He's a tsundere, so don't mind him, sweetheart~"

"HAH?! WHO THE HELL IS A TSUNDERE?!" Squalo would definitely be waving his sword at Lussuria if he weren't bound by that kid's hair. Where was his sword anyway?

Poinsettia looked unsure of the whole situation. It looked like it could get violent, but she let it go. These people obviously knew each other well and they were tied up. It would be fine. She looked up to Xanxus who had been observing her watch his idiotic subordinates for a while. She could tell there was something on his mind. But before she could speak, a sing-song voice interrupted her.

"Poinsettia~! I'm ho~me!"

Her mother's voice echoed across the small valley and Poinsettia's eyes widened in alarm. There were rules within this tower, and one of them was no strangers allowed. Even when her mother had brought business partners over, she had never been allowed to meet any of them. Although she was sure her mother would love Xanxus once she met him, this was not the best way for them to meet. She looked at Xanxus with wide eyes and expressed the only solution she could think of.

"You have to hide!"

Xanxus looked back at her and an understanding passed through that single look. There wasn't enough time to leave so her mother wouldn't find all of them and Xanxus also wanted to check if things had changed as the years had passed. He turned to his men and gave his order out in a low voice.

"Make yourselves scarce." He then turned to Poinsettia and spoke a little more softly to her than he did to his men. Only a little, though. "Let them go."

She nodded and with a flick of her wrist, their bindings became undone.

"What do you mean by making-" She turned to Xanxus, only to find him gone. Looking back to the group of chairs, she found his men had also vanished.

* * *

Okay, now Squalo was genuinely confused. Not only had Xanxus shown affection to the girl, but he had even_ listened_ to her. And he didn't listen to anyone. Regardless of how weird his orders were, the Varia always followed them, hence the reason why all of them were in hiding now. They had left so quickly and quietly the girl hadn't even noticed them leave. Squalo had jumped up onto the wooden platform that led into her bedroom and had found Mammon sound asleep on the bed. On the odd occasion, he actually acted like an infant from time to time and had stayed asleep so far. As long as the woman coming into the tower didn't barge into the bedroom and Mammon didn't wake up, he would be safe sleeping away for the moment.

"Poinsettia~! Let down your ha~ir!"

Echoed another call, closer this time. The woman was probably at the base of the tower. The girl was named after a flower. The weird thing was that it suited her really well. Squalo watched from his hiding place as the girl replied.

"Coming!"

He continued to observe, with a weird fascination, as the girl threw her hair over the window seat ledge. Was that window the only way in and out of that tower? There must be another entrance from the other buildings below. Was the girl's mother being lazy? Probably.

Squalo looked around the tower to find all his comrades hiding, all looking as confused as he felt. The only exception was his boss, who seemed to look on in quiet anticipation. Squalo was seeing a whole new side of Xanxus today; he never would have guessed his boss could be quiet without making his presence known with that demonic aura of his. Something serious was going on if he was doing something so out of character.

Poinsettia had just used her hair to pull up a woman into the tower and she stepped down from the window seat. Squalo studied her the same way he studied all his targets. She was a slender woman who looked like she was in her late forties. Her curly black hair was streaked with grey and her sharp silver eyes looked falsely happy. Underneath the gloss of that fake look, Squalo could sense the cruelty hidden behind it. Years of experience had taught Squalo how to differentiate who was good, bad and really bad. This woman gave off a hidden vibe that made even a trained, fearless assassin like himself feel uncomfortably alarmed.

Squalo looked up to his boss only to find Xanxus glaring at her with a rage that was close to overflowing. Did he know that woman? In normal circumstances, Xanxus would have shot anyone on the spot if he looked at them like that. Yet here, he held back completely. Was it because of the girl?

Squalo looked back to the girl and watched her quietly as she spoke to her mother.

"Okaerinasai, okaa-sama!"

Poinsettia was always glad to see her mother, but she felt nervous this time. Hopefully her mother wouldn't notice it.

"Tadaima, my darling. How have you been? You seem nervous to see me."

Her silver eyes had narrowed at her considerably and Poinsettia believed it was due to worry.

"Um, well... Why don't you sit down and relax first? Your journey here must have been long and hard."

This would give Poinsettia some time to come up with an excuse for her anxiety. The last time she had hidden someone in her room had been several years ago. One of her mother's business partners had brought his daughter with him for a meeting, and she had found the stairs up to her tower from the archives. She was many years younger than Poinsettia, but she was still a human being. They had made cupcakes and then played hide and seek. While the little girl was hiding, her mother had come in and had noticed the girl immediately. She had grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the tower. Later, her mother had given her a rather scary scolding in a terrifyingly quiet voice. Poinsettia never saw the little girl again.

This time, she wasn't hiding one little girl, but six fully grown men and an infant, though said infant was sleeping. How could she not be nervous?

Poinsettia took her mother's coat and hung it up on the mannequin she used when she was making dresses for herself. She had made the mannequin herself too. Her mother walked to the armchair leisurely and Poinsettia suddenly came up with an idea that should explain her nervousness to her mother and keep the hidden men safe. And it wouldn't be a lie; she was a terrible liar, after all, and would be caught without a doubt if she did lie.

Having found a solution to her problem, she moved excitedly as her mother sat down on her favourite armchair. She sat down on the stool beside her and began to speak.

"So, okaa-sama-"

"Ah, ah, ah! Sing for me first, dear. Mama's had a long journey and needs to hear your beautiful voice."

Without hesitation, Poinsettia ran to get her brush, placed it in her mother's hands and started to sing, though at a much faster pace than she usually did. The sooner she sang and talked with her mother, the sooner she would leave and the sooner Xanxus and the others would be out of danger of being found.

"Flowergleamandglow, letyourpowershine, maketheclockreverse, bringbackwhatoncewasmine,"

"Oh! Poinsettia, wait! Wait!" Her mother quickly started brushing her hair as the song was rushed through. The usual golden glow of the sun flowed from her ruby roots to the tips of cherry as she sang and the spell glowed through her mother too, reversing her aging and bringing her back to the appearance of her mid-twenties.

"Healwhathasbeenhurt, changethefate'sdesign, savewhathasbeenlost, bringbackwhatoncewasmine, bringbackwhatoncewasmine."

As soon as she finished her song, she noticed her mother's reproachful look and quickly spoke to change the topic before she could say a word of reprimand.

"So, mother, you asked me about why I was so nervous before, right? Well, um, you see... You know tomorrow's a big day?"

She looked at her mother with big, hopeful eyes. When her mother continued to stare at her expressionlessly, she spoke once more.

"Well, seeing as you didn't respond, it's my birthday!" At this, her mother laughed.

"Oh no, dear, I distinctly remember your birthday was last year."

"Uh, yes, but see, that's the funny thing about birthdays! They're kind of an annual thing..."

Her mother raised an eyebrow and asked, "And?"

Poinsettia cleared her throat quietly before she explained.

"Well... I was hoping that as a present, you could...bring me more of those shell paints you once brought me a couple of years ago?"

Before her mother could say anything in return, Poinsettia rose from her stool and walked over to the fireplace nervously. She had covered the beginnings of her newest painting with the curtain earlier, but now pulled the heavy fabric aside to reveal the partially painted landscape underneath.

"See, I started a new painting... Do you recognise it?"

'Yes. I do.' Xanxus thought.

There was a hill painted among the fields with a pretty sunset in the background. Although it wasn't yet finished, she had hoped she could get the shell paints to add them to the landscape. Those particular paints always added a shimmer to any painting.

"I've been to a great many places and seen a great many things. I can't remember them all. What makes this particular place so special?"

"Oh... Um, this is the place we went to fifteen years ago. In Sicily. Remember? We stayed at one of your villas... I miss it a lot, so I thought it might help if I painted it. Just to help that feeling..."

She trailed off. At that, her mother's eyes narrowed to sharp steel daggers, and Poinsettia could feel she was going down a route that her mother was not too happy about.

"Actually, I was also wondering if you could...maybe...take me somewhere? Like you did that time?"

If her mother approved, she would tell her where they were going right now. Xanxus would overhear if she did, and she could meet up with him wherever it was she was taken to. She was bound to have a little bit of freedom once she was outside her tower.

"Poinsettia, I've said it before, you are not safe in the outside world. It's a cruel place."

"Yes, but if I learn and become strong enough to protect myself-"

Her mother laughed, "You? No dear, I'm afraid becoming strong won't help."

"But okaa-sama, that's because I've never tried! Surely if-"

"There are no 'if's in this world dear. You are not safe-"

"But I was the last time we left to go to Italy!"

"That was different. Things change-"

"But they can change for the better too, so-"

"Poinsettia-"

"-and if they have-"

"Poinsettia-"

"-then it's okay to-"

"POINSETTIA! YOU ARE NOT LEAVING THIS TOWER! EVER!"

Poinsettia flinched at the sudden volume her mother's voice had taken and looked up with soulful emerald orbs. Her mother never raised her voice.

"Oh, great, now I look like the bad guy..." She slouched in the armchair with a hand placed delicately across her temples. Unsure of what to do, Poinsettia looked at the floor.

"Alright dear, I'll get those paints for you."

At that, Poinsettia looked up hopefully and asked, "Really?"

Her mother nodded affirmatively and Poinsettia smiled a small smile.

"But you understand I have to go all the way to Peru to get them for you. And my work is taking a lot more time and becoming more stressful. I may not be able to come back home for three to four weeks."

Poinsettia's face fell at that idea, but she wanted to make sure her mother wasn't too stressed. She had found over the years that her mother would sometimes tell her about what was going on with her work. Often they just led her to be more curious, but if she asked questions further than a certain point, her mother would not answer her.

"Why has work gotten so busy?"

"One of my men has disappeared. It seems that someone has been chasing him across the entire globe."

"Oh. Do I know him?"

"You've only seen him once before, so you probably don't remember him. His name is Timon Spiro."

* * *

Squalo almost fell out of his hiding place. What were the chances? The man they had been chasing _was_ Timon Spiro. But how was he related to that woman? If there were any relations, surely the Varia's database would contain information on this woman. There was no one who could slip through to the point where they weren't even on the database.

Squalo had looked up earlier at his boss, and honestly, he was glad that Timon had been brought up. Xanxus looked ready to get down there and strangle the woman. Although Squalo was used to death, he was not used to having a little girl as a spectator. He and the other assassins had gone through various emotions in the space of half an hour. Shock to see glowing hair that made people younger, alarm at sensing a cruel aura of a woman who seemed so dangerous, sympathy for the girl who was caged in her tower and surprise that an impossibly perilous woman may be involved. Only the most dangerous could make the best assassins in the world feel uneasy.

Xanxus finally understood part of Selene's motives with the girl. If she had hair that could keep people young forever, it was obvious that she would hide the girl from the rest of the world for her own selfish reasons. Xanxus could understand selfish- after all, he was very selfish because he had grown up as a spoilt child. He made people's lives very difficult, yes, but he did not imprison them to a life of solitude. He instantly wanted to kill her; from where he was, it would have been so easy to just pull out his guns and blast her to oblivion with his flames of rage. But he couldn't with the girl watching. He decided to wait until the girl wasn't there to do so, but then Timon was mentioned. If Selene was involved with the Arena and Acerbi trash, then she could end up as a useful source of information, in which case she would have to be left alive for a little bit longer. Xanxus vaguely wondered if he had the patience to deal with how long it would take before he could get rid of her.

All five men continued to watch as Poinsettia helped her mother pack a basket with food to send her on her way. They said their goodbyes as Selene explained she couldn't stay longer because of work. Xanxus noticed the way she looked down at the fluffy black cat on the rug next to the window seat and instantly knew something was suspicious about that cat. The feline obviously had its allegiances with the old witch and may well give off their positions. But he worried for no reason as the cat stretched, yawned and lay down to sleep in a lazy manner. This seemed to satisfy her as she turned back to the window seat to leave.

After she left, Xanxus waited an extra few minutes as Poinsettia waved to her mother from the window before he left his hiding spot. His men followed his action. He waited until she turned around before walking over to the window ledge and looking out. She had disappeared from the valley already.

Before anyone could say anything about the incident, Levi spoke.

"Happy birthday for tomorrow. How old are you?"

Poinsettia blinked in surprise. No one apart from her mother, her second mother and Xanxus had ever said happy birthday to her before. But hearing it from a total stranger made her exceedingly happy. She beamed at him.

"Thank you! I turn twenty four tomorrow."

"TWENTY FOUR?! USODA!"

Poinsettia frowned. Did this man, Squalo, really not know how to talk quietly?

"It's not a lie! And you'd know if it was because I'm a bad liar." She stated. The silver-haired man narrowed his eyes at her.

"Think about it, sakusen-taichou. If her hair can do that to her mother, then it probably does the same to her. This little principessa seems more and more like royalty with each passing second shishi~"

Poinsettia turned to the blond boy in confusion. What did her hair do that was visible? It was supposed to heal her illness, and yes it did glow, but other than that, there was nothing else you could see. She tried to look into his eyes to find a further explanation, but she couldn't see past the thick blond hair that hid his eyes. Speaking of hidden eyes...

"Oh!" She suddenly remembered the little boy she had left sleeping on her bed whose head was almost completely covered by the hood he wore. It was past napping time already- if he slept any longer, he wouldn't sleep properly in the night. She ran off to go wake him.

After she left the room, Xanxus looked at his subordinates. Squalo, Bel and Levi looked at him with curiosity clear on their faces. Lussuria looked thoughtful and from experience, it could be said that the things Lussuria came up with never sat well with his comrades when he thought. Xanxus was the first to speak.

"That woman's name is Selene. Find information on her. Where's the trash you were chasing?"

Squalo looked at Xanxus and realised he wasn't going to kill them. Had meeting that girl really taken over his mind that much? Squalo had never thought that possible. Xanxus seemed to be in a strange state of mind. He looked calm- too calm for Squalo's liking. When he was openly angry, he was just violent. But when he was calm, he turned deadly. He would have to tread very carefully.

"The girl knocked him out and hid him somewhere. Ask her."

When Xanxus was calm, Squalo turned calm. If he didn't, he would have died a long time ago. The patter of bare feet was heard and everyone turned their heads to the source of the noise. When Poinsettia walked down the stairs with an awoken infant in her arms, she could feel five pairs of eyes on her.

"Muu, what happened? Where's our target?" The infant squeaked.

At that, every face turned questioningly towards the girl.

"Well..."

* * *

**Translations:**

_Japanese_

Hai- Yes

Makasete- Leave it to me

Onii-san- Big Brother

Okaerinasai- Welcome home

Tadaima- I'm back

Okaa-sama- Mother (very polite form)

Usoda- Liar

_Italian_

Scoiatolli- Squirrel

Principessa- Princess

* * *

**A/N: **Did you enjoy? DID YOU ENJOY? DID YOU?! I'm just...a little bit nervous, I guess- it's my first time writing all of the Varia with Xanxus in the picture :/ Please tell me if they're in character or not! As the author, I really can't tell. As far as I'm concerned, I think all of the above would happen, so I need to know whether everybody else thinks it's right too.

In any case, please leave a review, whatever you think! I love reading them :D I hope to update sooner next time and I'm going to try and turn my update monthly, but...we shall see.

See ya in the next chappie!


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